There are no panaceas, but Local Choice Energy is as close to a panacea for NM transitioning to renewables as we will see in this session. But the monopoly utilities are lying through their teeth and will stop at nothing to defeat SB 165. We can’ let that happen. Read on to see what you can do right now and tomorrow morning…and why!
I had planned writing a stirring blog this morning to inspire a bunch of you to join me in person for Local Choice Energy’s first committee hearing tomorrow in Senate Conservation Committee (SCONC) at 9 am (details below). But when I sat down to write: No Internet. So I cleaned the kitchen, hoping for better luck in the afternoon. As luck would have it, at 4:20pm the internet is working, and the kitchen is clean, but no time for a detailed, inspiring blog, full of tales of LCE successes in other states. They exist, but I need to get this to you in time for you to to write to SCONC members today and to make plans to attend tomorrow’s hearing in person. Yes, you could do it via Zoom(and many will), but I’m asking you to show up in person. Why?
- While SCONC should be a sure win, we don’t want to take anything for granted as bills can go sideways and
- LCE’s next stop is Senate Judiciary, chaired by Sen. Joseph Cervantes, who also sits on SCONC and we want him to see a mountain of support for LCE, so he understands that constituents want this bill badly and that we are paying attention, hopefully causing him to schedule it quickly and actively support it in the much tougher SJC..
So, join me at the Roundhouse at 9, but arrive a tad early, as parking in the four story garage is filling by mid morning.. Read on for our Call to Action for today and tomorrow. We can do this!!
SB 165, the Local Choice Energy Act, is scheduled to be heard this Tuesday , 2/7 at 9 AM at the Senate Conservation Committee in Room 311 at the Roundhouse (490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501).
We need your help! We’ve heard that this bill is PNM’s top priority to kill this session (so LCE must be damned good….and it is), but we need to have a strong showing at every single hearing of the bill, starting tomorrow (Tuesday). Please make a plan to join md in person in support of the bill on Tuesday, bring a friend, and send a version of this call to action to your own email list or on social media, especially if you are a precinct member, an Indivisible member or just have an email list of prgressive NM Dems. Zoom participation is available as well, but if you can make it in person, please join us.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7739881331 or via telephone US: +1 253 215 8782
Webinar ID: 773 988 1331
To provide written comments please email SCONC.Zoom@nmlegis.gov
Public Power NM has a nifty app that allows you to write to multiple legislators with one click. So, please take advantage of how easy and quick it is to write to Senators on the Conservation and Judiciary committees through this online form, literally one click required: https://www.publicpowernm.org/take-action
But if you are like me, you don’t trust that these fancy tools will deliver an email that looks just like a personal email, so I’m gonna go old school and write them one-by-one with a personal email to each., Dear Senator Stefanics is much better than “Dear Senator.” Contact info for SCONC members is at the bottom of this post, but first some background info for Local Choice Energy.
SB165, the Local Choice Energy Act will empower our communities to generate affordable, renewable electricity, while creating local jobs, lowering utility bills, investing in local economies, and providing more revenue for local governments for community needs. The electricity will be transmitted in partnership with the existing utility companies over their grid for the same fees that they charge their customers.
All those benefits are not pipe dreams… Those benefits are possible because.Local Choice Energy doesn’t export its profits to Wall St. shareholders. It invests it inyour community. Local Choice Energy is the law of the land in 10 states, and millions of Americans in more than 1300 communities are served by these community-owned providers. So this is a proven policy that is benefitting millions of Americans. All of the electricity providers in the United States that have gone 100% renewable are community-owned, and many of them are local choice energy providers. This is a proven, safe, and reliable policy option that saves ratepayers money, while enjoying a far faster transition to renewables.. Local Choice Energy is a significant way to have an impact in the face of climate change, while offering so many other important, tangible benefits to our communities and residents. So, why not NM? Ask PNM who has launched a fierce misinformation campaign to protect their monopoly and profits. We must counter that campaign by educating our legislators.
The Santa Fe New Mexican published a good article on Local Choice Energy today. Check it out and maybe include it in your email to the Senators below.!
PNM Lies Challenged
· PNM claims that the legislation would take over the investor-owned utilities’ power grid, but this is a lie. The legislation allows municipalities, counties, and tribes to generate energy but relies on (and pays) investor-owned utilities to provide transmission and distribution services; the investor-owned utilities maintain the ownership and management of the grid, and they are fully compensated for these services.
· They say that in Illinois and Massachusetts, regulators found that residential customers lost money to local choice providers, but the issues they are referring to are with deregulated predatory companies, not community-owned local choice providers.
· They say that local choice providers will get expensive power from out-of-state energy brokers, but the evidence on the ground where this is the law shows local renewable energy development, stable costs, competitive costs, and frequently lower costs offered by local choice providers. There are no examples of unreasonably high rates paid by customers of local choice providers in other states.
· They say that local choice providers wouldn’t be subject to the state’s renewable portfolio standards, but they are subject to the exact same renewable portfolio standards set out in the Energy Transition Act (“ETA”). There is evidence that local choice providers exceed renewable targets faster and for less cost to ratepayers.
· They say that local choice providers would not be subject to PRC oversight, but this is also false. The PRC approves detailed implementation plans submitted by local choice providers before they are allowed to commence operations.
· They say that this policy will result in energy shortages, but there have been no energy shortages or disruptions in service as a result of this policy where it is the law… 10 states, 1300 communities, proven results.
· They say that this will hinder their ability to meet the goals set out in the ETA, but that is also false. This is not a zero-sum game. When local choice energy is the law, IOU’s will have more local options to procure renewable energy. Plus it isn’t as if PNM, El Paso Electric or Xcel are exactly racing to deliver renewbles to their customers.
- Despite the ETA passing in 2019, none of NM’s IOUs have exceeded 10% renewable in their energy mix. We can do better
·
SCONC Contact info
- Chair: Elizabeth “Liz” Stefanics (D). District 39 (Bernalillo, Lincoln, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Torrance & Valencia). Room 328B, 986-4377. Email: lstefanics@msn.com
- Vice Chair: Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D). District 16 (Bernalillo). Room 218C, 986-4389. Email: a.sedillolopez@nmlegis.gov
- Ranking Member: David M. Gallegos (R). District 41 (Eddy & Lea). Room 415A, 986-4278. Email: david@ramirezandsonsinc.com
- Member: Joseph Cervantes (D). District 31 (Doña Ana). Room 319, 986-4861. Email: joseph.cervantes@nmlegis.gov
- Member: Carrie Hamblen (D). District 38 (Doña Ana). Room 416G, 986-4266. Email: carrie.hamblen@nmlegis.gov
- Member: Steven P. Neville (R). District 2 (San Juan). Room 415B, 986-4701. Email: steven.neville@nmlegis.gov
- Member: Harold Pope (D). District 23 (Bernalillo). Room 416E, 986-4365. Email: harold.popejr@nmlegis.gov
- Member: Gregg Schmedes (R). District 19 (Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe & Torrance). Room 415F, 986-4395. Email: gregg.schmedes@nmlegis.gov
- Member: William P. Soules (D). District 37 (Doña Ana). Room 328C, 986-4834. Email: bill.soules@nmlegis.gov
Huddle Up! Weds, 6-7pm
Let’s meet this Weds to celebrate Local Choice Energy advancing to Senate Judiciary and to compare notes on how our other 26 bills are doing. Huddles are a great way to learn how the legislature works and how and when you can best have an impact. you must register to participate. Click here to register.
Let’s do this!!!
In solidarity & hope,
Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Local-State Government & Legislation, Uncategorized
Renewables are a lifeline!
FYI, We put a solar array in 2005. For decades I believed that ‘green energy’ was necessary to mitigate Global Warming.
How very wrong I was! Like everyone else, I was ignorant and gullible, until only a couple of years ago.
Retakers can see for themselves here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2021/06/21/why-everything-they-said-about-solar—including-that-its-clean-and-cheap—was-wrong/?sh=f2807335fe53
But when reporters eventually looked into the issue they came to the same conclusions I had. In 2019, The New York Times NYT -0.2% published a long article about toxic old solar panels and batteries causing “harm to people who scavenge recyclable materials by hand” in poor African communities. In 2020, Discover DISCA 0.0% magazineconfirmed that “it is often cheaper to discard them in landfills or send them to developing countries. As solar panels sit in dumps, the toxic metals they contain can leach out into the environment and possibly pose a public health hazard if they get into the groundwater supply.”
https://www.inverse.com/innovation/solar-cell-design
The authors considered three different future scenarios for the silicon-based solar cells we use today, ranging from optimistic to realistic emission levels, and found that in all scenarios the total level of carbon emissions created through these technologies was more than the international aviation industry as a whole.
——– Forwarded Message ——–
Subject: LITHIUM BATTERIES AND SOLAR PANELS
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2023 22:38:00 -0700
From: eduardo
To: eduardo
https://climate360news.lmu.edu/lithium-not-as-clean-as-we-thought/
https://earthworks.org/resources/responsible-minerals-sourcing-for-renewable-energy/
Impacts of Nickel Mining and Refining
Devastating cases of damage to freshwater and marine ecosystems have been documented in Canada, Russia, Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia due to nickel mining and refining practices.
Impacts of Cobalt Mining
The majority of global cobalt production is concentrated in two southern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo: Lualaba and Haut-Katanga. Industrial-scale copper-cobalt mines operated by a mix of state-owned, Chinese and multinational companies account for 80% of Congolese cobalt production.
Pollution from these operations impacts on public health and impedes the growth of agriculture and tourism—sectors that could help diversify the region’s economy and reduce its dependence on mining. Bribes of government officials by companies often prevent local communities and workers from reaping the economic benefits of these mines.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-for-lithium-ion-battery/
The cobalt pipeline
Tracing the path from deadly hand-dug mines in Congo to consumers’ phones and laptops
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Story by Todd C. Frankel Photos by Michael Robinson Chavez Video editing by Jorge Ribas
September 30, 2016
“It is true, there are children in these mines,” provincial governor Richard Muyej, the highest-ranking government official in Kolwezi, said in an interview. He also acknowledged problems with mining-related deaths and pollution.
These men call themselves “creuseurs,” French for “diggers.” They toil inside dozens of holes pockmarking the mine’s moonscape-like bottom. The tunnels are dug by hand and burrow deep underground, illuminated only by the toylike plastic lamps strapped to the miners’ heads.
Child labor
No one knows exactly how many children work in Congo’s mining industry. UNICEF in 2012 estimated that 40,000 boys and girls do so in the country’s south. A 2007 study funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development found 4,000 children worked at mining sites in Kolwezi alone.
————————————-
So, here I am, using my laptop. I also have a Kindle Fire with a long lasting battery and my cell, of course.
But I certainly do not support solar and their ion, cobalt, etc. batteries.
Wind is a little better but still relies on an extractive industry.
Us, peoples of the ‘north’, have exported almost all our production and waste, all of our consumption, to the ‘south’.
Thus, we are also, day in and day out, externalizing the enormous murderous damage our insatiable consumption engenders across the planet.
And, really, we, at the bottom are still trapped in a colonialist system:
https://youtu.be/aYuIvfS6MtE
Make time to listen to Professor Justin Podur above.
eduardo
PS. It is our behavior that needs change.
And there is plenty of Geothermal energy sources in NM.
And, by the way, Global Warming has been here and it does not give us much time to develop the RIGHT ACTIONS. If there is any left.