Current Priorities

Dear Air Quality Bureau Permitting Team: Conservation Voters New Mexico Education Fund submits these comments in response to Yucca Growth Infrastructure, LLC-YGI’s microgrid air quality construction permit application. We respectfully urge the Air Quality Bureau to deny the application. As a statewide non-profit committed to protecting New Mexico’s air, land, water, and communities, we are gravely concerned about the volume of emissions that this project will produce and the associated public health, environmental, and climate impacts on communities in Doña Ana County and beyond. As was publicly reported in Source NM, Yucca Growth’s gas powered fuel cell microgrid project is estimated to produce 10 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

In 2024, Governor Lujan Grisham signed a bill to establish a clean transportation fuels program to help protect New Mexico from climate change. The legislation requires a 20% reduction in New Mexico fuel carbon intensity by 2030 and a 30% reduction by 2040 compared to 2018. The rule holds the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars to support faster progress in cleaning up vehicle pollution and it is an important part of New Mexico’s climate strategy.