COMMENTARY: As someone who cares about our state’s well-being and future, I support responsible efforts to develop our state’s renewable energy sector. Some days, it seems our future is literally bright and we’re on the verge of achieving something remarkable in New Mexico. Other days, it’s painfully obvious that New Mexico will not truly realize our potential to be a leader in renewable energy until some of the elected officials that are supposed to be helping us actually start doing that.
Courtesy photo
Leslie Lakind
I’m talking about U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who seems to be an anchor that keeps holding us down.
New Mexico’s economy, in general, is always two steps forward and one step back. Thanks to Pearce, we keep stepping back. He gives lip service to renewable energy at every opportunity, recently saying that we “can’t forget about solar while tapping into the oil-ripe Delaware Basin.”
Yet his record shows that he votes against renewable energy and associated jobs in the state. He has repeatedly voted against tax credits for renewable energy while also voting to slash funding for Department of Energy programs that support American leadership and prosperity in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Pearce’s actions are contrary with what New Mexico needs for economic advancement.
Pearce has been a stalwart for the fossil fuel industry, while also taking in millions in political donations from the fossil fuel industry, more than twice as much money as he’s taken from any other industry.
While the oil and gas industry is important to our state, we suffer from its eternal cycle of boom and bust, and automation will continue to eat into the number jobs in that sector. Renewable energy jobs are a place for displaced workers to land. Jobs lost to automation are not coming back, and it should be a focus of our elected officials to ensure that our economy diversifies. This needs to happen now, not after the fact.
Pearce’s duplicity toward the solar industry specifically, demonstrated recently by his staunch support of the tariffs President Trump announced on solar manufacturing, is unforgiveable. While Trump’s publicity stunt may appeal to some, it won’t do anything to help our country truly succeed. All experts agree that these tariffs will only hurt the industry and increase prices for New Mexico consumers.
Based on his press release from January, Pearce seems to believe that Trump’s solar tariffs are a win for manufacturing, but the real losers are going to be people currently working in the industry and consumers who pay the higher prices the tariffs cost. Experts believe the tariffs will cause an industry crisis, putting at risk many of 23,000 solar jobs in the U.S., 2,500 of which are right here in New Mexico.
While China is able to produce solar cells more cheaply for several reasons, our country has a thriving manufacturing sector around solar, especially the “other” parts for solar systems – fuses, inverters, special roofing, etc. This domestic sector will suffer by levying taxes on imported photovoltaic cells, directly hurting the manufacturing jobs that Pearce claims he wants to protect.
There’s no question that our solar industry needs a boost, but defunding programs to support renewable energy and taxing foreign solar cells that we can’t yet cost-effectively manufacture here is not a prudent choice.
In a perfect world, Pearce would be the poster child for renewables with his Southern New Mexico district being amongst the country’s leaders in solar energy. Instead, Steve Pearce talks a big game about supporting renewable energy but acts to make solar uncompetitive and undermine advances in renewable energy, while also taking over $2 million in in political donations from the oil and gas industry.
New Mexico needs and deserves better leadership than Steve Pearce provides.
Leslie Lakind is a retired dentist and a concerned citizen who has been living in Santa Fe since 1976. Agree with his opinion? Disagree? We welcome your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary here.