New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham flew to Australia earlier this month with an oil and gas lobbyist and the head of a natural gas industry group to speak at a hydrogen conference. The trip came after a week of whiplash hydrogen news in the state, with a panel recommending money for hydrogen projects, the federal government snubbing a New Mexico-led regional hydrogen hub proposal and a state agency releasing a rosy outlook for the carbon sequestration needed for hydrogen production.
Lujan Grisham’s office announced that she was leading a trade mission to Australia, culminating in the Asia-Pacific Hydrogen 2023 Summit in Sydney, just days before departure. A press release named nine others joining the governor, including a representative from Avangrid (which is trying to buy New Mexico’s largest public electric utility); the former chief commercial officer for BayoTech, an Albuquerque-based manufacturer of machines that turn natural gas into hydrogen; Jason Sandel, the head of an oil and gas well-servicing company in Farmington, New Mexico, chair of a natural gas industry group and a major political backer of Lujan Grisham; and Jennifer Bradfute, an oil and gas lobbyist and lawyer for years with Marathon Oil who recently joined ExxonMobil.
