Haaland, Bregman split on energy and environment in only Democratic debate

ALBUQUERQUE

Former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman met Saturday for the only debate of New Mexico’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, drawing their clearest differences on environmental and energy issues while agreeing on much of an agenda that includes universal child care, expanded tax credits and resistance to federal immigration enforcement.

The 90-minute debate, hosted by the Albuquerque nonprofit Dukes Up at Central New Mexico Community College’s Smith Brasher Hall, drew its 12 questions from advocacy groups rather than journalists. A panel of five undecided voters served as a jury, ruling on whether each candidate had answered the question or avoided it. Both candidates were judged to have answered every question they were asked first.

Haaland, who spent four years managing the Interior’s 70,000 employees and $18 billion budget and previously represented New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District, has led in public polling and won 73.5% of the delegate vote at the Democratic Party of New Mexico’s pre-primary convention in March.

The primary is June 2, and early voting is already underway.

Asked about the proposed Project Jupiter hyperscale data center, Bregman gave a conditional answer, saying data centers can help accelerate clean energy if they are built with guardrails on water use, electric rates and grid reliability. He proposed using desalinated brackish water for industrial cooling and emphasized the construction jobs such projects could bring.

Haaland said data centers must follow the state’s existing clean energy goals and could not rely on gas-powered microgrids. She argued the same construction jobs could be created by building affordable housing, citing public school teachers in Roy, New Mexico, who live in travel trailers because the community lacks workforce housing.

On the reuse of fracking wastewater, Haaland said the science remains unsettled on what produced water contains and said it should not be released into streams or drinking water supplies. She invoked her oversight of the U.S. Geological Survey as Interior secretary and called for full chemical disclosure from oil and gas operators.

Bregman blurred the categories, lumping produced water in with brackish and recycled water and noting that wastewater is already used to irrigate parks and golf courses.

On Blackstone’s proposed acquisition of Public Service Company of New Mexico, Haaland framed private equity as shareholder-first and called on advocates to weigh in.

Bregman argued PNM lacks the capital to meet the 2019 Energy Transition Act’s targets – 80% renewable by 2040 and zero carbon by 2045. He said he could accept the deal with what he called an ironclad rate-protection contract carrying real consequential damages.

Both candidates supported expanding the child tax credit and the working families tax credit, preserving universal child care against Republican legal challenges, strengthening data privacy law and enforcing collective bargaining rights for hospital workers. Both also endorsed elevating the state Office of African American Affairs to department status with oversight of the African American Performing Arts Center.

On affordability, Bregman proposed doubling the child tax credit and the working families tax credit and sending a $500-per-person rebate, capped at $2,000 for a family of four earning under $200,000. He said the rebate would be funded from oil revenue surpluses he tied to the Iran conflict.

Haaland’s response focused on a public option for health care, a wage increase and continued investment in clean energy as ways to lower household costs.

Education, land and legacy pollution

Asked about the long-running Yazzie v. Martinez ruling, which found the state was failing to provide an adequate education to Native American, English-learner and low-income students, Bregman called the decision a wake-up call and proposed a Public Education Department rapid response team of master tutors that would be deployed to struggling first- and second-grade classrooms. He cited tribal endorsements from Sandia Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh and the Jicarilla Apache Nation and said preserving language and culture should drive consultation between tribal leaders and PED.

Haaland argued the existing remedial plan failed because tribal stakeholders rejected it. She said her convening power as governor would bring them back to the table. She also recounted meeting Yazzie family members during a campaign stop in Gallup whose son, named in the original lawsuit, has since aged out of public school without seeing the case fully resolved.

On a question about oil, gas and uranium pollution submitted by the advocacy group Yucca Action, Haaland, an enrolled member of Laguna Pueblo, recounted growing up near what was once the largest open-pit uranium mine in the world. She described twice-daily blasting for 30 years, a cousin who lost his hearing and 25 years of uranium dust before remediation began.

She tied the answer to recent amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and to the Tularosa Basin downwinders, who she said came to her congressional office with the names of family members who had died.

Bregman pledged to hold polluters accountable and pursue operators who walk away from orphan wells without funding cleanup.

Confronting Washington

Haaland cited her time on the House Armed Services Committee and her continuing calls to members of Congress as evidence of her willingness to push back against the Trump Administration.

Bregman countered in his rebuttal, saying he was not aware of any direct accountability Haaland had imposed on the president. He pledged to take the administration to court when New Mexicans are harmed.

“I’m a rule of law kind of guy,” Bregman said.

On immigration enforcement, Bregman said that as district attorney, he had already sent a letter warning ICE that agents who violate state law would face prosecution.

Haaland said she would not allow state resources to support ICE operations and would push the Legislature to bar masked law enforcement and prohibit immigration enforcement at public schools, courthouses, sacred sites and churches. She pointed to recent reports of ICE agents in southern New Mexico questioning Native American residents about their citizenship.

In closing, Bregman said he was running to improve the quality of life for every New Mexican. Haaland closed on the stakes of what she called a chaotic administration in Washington and her record of managing a federal department, and invited voters to join the more than 12,000 volunteers her campaign says it has signed up.

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