Our Report Card was viewed by almost 2000 New Mexicans in the first hours. Now action shifts to social and mainstream media. We provide tools to prepare letters to the editor.  New Energy Economy is defending us again, this time before the PRC tomorrow at 1pm. PNM wants you to own 10% of Palo Verde nuclear facility so that you pay for the inevitable clean up and any accidents. Details.

Report Card Follow Up. The Media Campaign Begins: In ten minutes, here is what you can do.. If you were one of the nearly 2000 New Mexicans who reviewed the Report Card yesterday, perhaps you could take a few moments to write a letter to the editor or a My View telling the 2 million New Mexicans what they missed. Our Report Card Media kit has sample letters to get you started plus information on how to submit a letter to the editor in newspapers in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Silver City, Gallup, Four Corners. Roswell, Carlsbad, Hobbs and Alamogordo. We need to use this Report Card as an education tool to inform New Mexicans as to how the Roundhouse works, who advances good legislation, who kills it and what you can do about it. Click here to access the Report Card Media Kit. If newspapers are flooded with letters on this, then they will be more likely to write their own Op-Ed or to do a story on the Report Card. We did our job, now it is your turn.  And thanks for the outpouring of emails thanking us. We were blown away.

If you missed it:  Click here to Read The 2019 Legislative Report Card. And if you haven’t shared it on Facebook, please post about the Report Card, tag a few friends so they see it, and then paste a link at the end of your post. This is such an easy way to ensure more and more New Mexicans are better informed, motivated and engaged.

Events, Actions & Opportunities

Like what we do? Help us do more.

• Wednesday, July 17, 1pm  PRC Hearing Room, PERA Building, 1120 Paseo de Peralta (directly east of the Roundhouse).  New Energy Economy will offer arguments asking the PRC to deny PNM from charging ratepayers for its foolish purchase of 10% of Palo Verde nuclear facility.  See post below for details.
• Join Santa Fe Dreamers for a public education forum on Wednesday, July 17 from 5:30-7pm at the United Church of Santa Fe, 1804 Arroyo Chamiso Rd. Our Executive Director Allegra Love will discuss migrant children detention, updates in asylum law, potential ICE raids in Santa Fe, etc. Come get your facts straight about news on the border and learn more about what you can do to support migrants in New Mexico. To get motivated to attend, take a look at the rest of this post as it provides information and video on our nation’s disgraceful response to asylum seekers.
• Protest against 40,000 Acres of Navajo Land for Fracking.  July 20, 11am-1pm At BLM Offices, at 110 Sun Ave NE #300, Albuquerque, Protest against 40,000 Acres of Navajo Land for Fracking.  July 20, 11am-1pm At BLM Offices, at 110 Sun Ave NE #300, Albuquerque,
• July 20 Retake Our Democracy on KSFR 101.1 FM with Darien Fernandez, Town Council member and Democratic Party Chair in Taos County who is challenging Sen, Carlos Cisneros, one of the eight Senators who voted no to decriminalize abortion, despite publicly committing to support the bill.  Click here to listen to the podcast.
• July 20, 3-5 pm, 1420 Cerrillos.  Democratic Legislative Panel on ethics, national popular vote, voters’ rights, gerrymandering, redistricting and more with four NM State legislators
• July 23, 7pm-8:30pm, Retake Our Democracy in Embudo Valley, Embudo Valley Community Library, 215 NM 75, Dixon, NM
• Aug 6, 6:30-8::30 Retake Our Democracy Organizing Meeting in Santa Fe

Click here to review details on the opportunities and actions above.

PNM Has a Deal For You:  New Energy Economy to Say NO!

As you can tell from their omnipresent commercials, PNM is ever so glad to do the right thing for our community. On Wednesday at 1pm at the PERA Building in Santa Fe, 1120 Paseo de Peralta, the Public Regulation Commission will hear arguments related to PNM’s seeking to foist ratepayers (you) with their purchase of 10% equity in Palo Verde nuclear facility.  Click here to read a Retake post describing all that is bad about this idea. The gist of it is that 30 years ago, PNM was going broke. They needed to access energy but couldn’t afford to purchase it, so they accepted a lease of 10% of the nuclear energy from Palo Verde. It was yet another terrible business decision by PNM as it obligated PNM to pay 10% of all decommissioning costs. This is like a renter signing a lease agreeing to fix the roof for the landlord. Well, actually this is about a billion times worse. But PNM is never without good ideas, so they purchased that 10% and now they want to sell it to you, something that could be an almost unfathomable cost to you….We are grateful to have New Energy Economy prepared to defend us against this insult. Here is their plan. Please read through to the end, as there are actions you can take quite easily from home even if you can’t come to the PERA building. The newly constituted PRC actually cares about constituent input and they’ve made a habit of doing the right thing, so let’s make sure they know what the right thing is.

40 years ago today the uranium mill tailings disposal pond breached its dam and 1,100 tons of solid radioactive mill waste and approximately 93 million gallons of acidic, radioactive tailings solution flowed into Pipeline Arroyo, a tributary of the Puerco River. Community members did not receive notice of the danger in Diné, despite the fact that a very large proportion of the community members was mono-lingual Diné speakers. The impacts of the spill were devastating and long-lasting. Read the Expert Testimony by Larry King in our Joint Petition against further Nuclear Investment.

The sacrifice of human life and environmental health at the hands of uranium extraction is a sacrifice we must not accept. We stand in solidarity with the indigenous resistance that has been calling for an end to the destructive and omnipotent practice of uranium extraction on indigenous lands here, in Canada, in China, in Australia, and throughout the world. There is no reason to invest in nuclear energy production given it’s legacy and the continuous health and environmental risks of mining, nuclear meltdown, and nuclear waste. 

Tomorrow New Energy Economy will deliver its oral arguments calling on the PRC to hold PNM accountable for their irresponsible investments in Palo Verde nuclear on behalf of New Mexican ratepayers. As you know, the Supreme Court recently ruled in our favor – upholding the finding that PNM’s failure to perform any economic analysis and compare their nuclear purchase against the alternatives in 2015, was imprudent.

We’ll argue that given PNM’s decision to invest without first conducting a sound evaluation and comparative analysis, the company, NOT New Mexican ratepayers, should bear the associated costs. When we start holding corporations accountable for their poor decision-making and shareholders start feeling the heat and burden of costly and risky investments like PNM’s ongoing investments in Palo Verde, we will see shifts in corporate behavior and divestment from dirty energy.

We’ll argue that unless PNM can prove that nuclear is the most cost effective among feasible alternatives (an impossible proposition given the low cost of wind and solar), Palo Verde nuclear should be kept OUT of New Mexico’s electricity portfolio and New Mexican ratepayers should be held harmless.

Join Us Wednesday, July 17
Where: 1120 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe, 87501
When: July 17, 2019 at 1:00PM

PRC Commissioners need to hear from you, their constituents, in advance of the 7/17 hearing.

Register your public comment here:  [Link to Petition Letter HERE]

Please contact your District PRC commissioner by phone, make an appointment to see them in person, or send them an email and:

• • Thank them for protecting New Mexico consumers;
  • Share your concerns about PNM’s continued investment in expensive, toxic nuclear energy.
  • Share your support of the position that given PNM’s imprudence, Palo Verde nuclear should be excluded from rates unless the company can prove, through an evidentiary hearing, that it’s the most cost effective energy source among all feasible alternatives;
  • Sign this petition letter to the PRC and include your comments which will be added to the public record.

So, Retake supporters. Sign the petition, contact your PRC representative and if you can make it, please come to the PERA building tomorrow at 1pm.  It is usually a good idea to arrive a bit early.  See you there.  Oh, and don’t forget that letter to the editor about the Report Card.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

Categories: Climate Change, Agriculture, Land Use and Wildlife, Election, Political Reform & National Politics

Tags: Featured, read more