New Mexico

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To get to zero by 2050, New Mexico must cut emissions by 3.7% a year

Emissions in New Mexico

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)  equivalent (MTCO2e ) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it

New Mexico's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 49%🔌 Power: 24%🚗 Transport: 21%🏠 Buildings: 5%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 49%🔌 Power: 24%🚗 Transport: 21%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    5% of New Mexico's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps 
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves 

    ...in all of New Mexico's 1.0 million buildings.

    In fact, 23% of appliances in buildings in New Mexico are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 795,000 dirty buildings in New Mexico. That's around 29,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.23.32% have been electrified, and the remaining 76.68% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 5% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 49%🔌 Power: 24%🚗 Transport: 21%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 49%🔌 Power: 24%🚗 Transport: 21%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    21% of New Mexico's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 624,000 vehicles in New Mexico and 3,000 are already electric (0.4% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 621,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 23,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.4% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.6% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 21% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 49%🔌 Power: 24%🚗 Transport: 21%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 49%🔌 Power: 24%🚗 Transport: 21%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    24% of New Mexico's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    To cut this pollution...

    Put solar panels on your roof!

    Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.

    We need to replace dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar)

    ...and find good jobs for those workers.

    Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in New Mexico

    3 coal plants

    Name: Four Corners Steam Elec Station County: San Juan Megawatt Capacity: 2,270 Utility: Arizona Public Service Co

    Four Corners Steam Elec Station
    San Juan County
    2,270 MW

    Name: San Juan County: San Juan Megawatt Capacity: 1,848 Utility: Public Service Co of NM

    San Juan
    San Juan County
    1,848 MW

    Name: Escalante County: McKinley Megawatt Capacity: 257 Utility: Tri-State G & T Assn, Inc

    Escalante
    McKinley County
    257 MW

    19 gas plants

    Name: Hobbs Generating Station County: Lea Megawatt Capacity: 666 Utility: Lea Power Partners LLC

    Hobbs Generating Station
    Lea County
    666 MW

    Name: Valencia Power Plant County: Valencia Megawatt Capacity: 656 Utility: Valencia Power LLC

    Valencia Power Plant
    Valencia County
    656 MW

    Name: Luna Energy Facility County: Luna Megawatt Capacity: 650 Utility: Public Service Co of NM

    Luna Energy Facility
    Luna County
    650 MW

    Name: Cunningham County: Lea Megawatt Capacity: 519 Utility: Southwestern Public Service Co

    Cunningham
    Lea County
    519 MW

    ...and 15 more

    1 oil plant

    Name: Quay County County: Quay Megawatt Capacity: 27 Utility: Southwestern Public Service Co

    Quay County
    Quay County
    27 MW

    Find the dirty plants near you

    Source: EPA, Jan 2021

    But wait!

    It's not enough to replace our power plants with wind and solar farms.

    To power our electric cars and buildings, we need two times the electricity we have today.

    In all, we'll need to build 3,000 megawatt (MW)  of wind power and 3,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, New Mexico would need to install about 938 turbines.

    Since New Mexico already has 1,000 MW of wind and 254 MW of solar, that's 1,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 3,000 MW of solar power. That's around 51 MW of wind power and 95 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of needed Wind & Solar builtA chart showing the share of Solar and Wind capacity that has already been installed and rest to be installed. We are 32.5% of the way to what we need to be carbon neutral by 2050.MWs of Wind & Solar Built

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 24% of the pollution.

    And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!

    🏭 Other: 49%🔌 Power: 24%🚗 Transport: 21%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 49%🔌 Power: 24%🚗 Transport: 21%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    The last 49% of New Mexico's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification  doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!

Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

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