New Mexico’s new governor Michelle Lujan Grisham took office this week calling on the state to spend more money on addressing climate change. And she wants to do it through more regulation of the booming oil industry and promotion of renewable energy.
Succeeding term-limited Republican Susana Martinez, Grisham, a Democrat also said it was time to spend more money on education.
In her inaugural speech, she said it was time to rebuild the morale of educators and students according to the Associated Press.
“We will be tenacious, we will not quit until we have delivered the investment our public schools and our teachers and our students deserve,” Lujan Grisham told several hundred spectators at her inauguration in the state’s capital.
She also repeatedly returned to increasing the minimum wage and included global warming as a top concern, which is a sharp departure from her predecessor.
Lujan Grisham said she wants New Mexico to provide a “national example of what a clean energy revolution looks like,” endorsing a goal for the state to produce 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar panels and wind turbines by 2030.
The state’s renewable energy quota now is set at 20 percent starting in 2020.
Nationwide, Democrats will hold 23 governorships after inaugurations. In addition to New Mexico, Democratic governors are replacing Republicans in Nevada, Wisconsin, Kansas, Illinois and Michigan.
Lujan Grisham previously served as state Cabinet secretary for health-related agencies before forming a business that oversaw New Mexico’s medical insurance pool for high-risk patients. She served three terms in Congress starting in 2013.