Will New Mexico Double Down On Dirty Energy?
The future of energy development in New Mexico’s Four Corners region is at a crossroads. The San Juan Generating Plant is slated to shut down half of its coal-burning capacity in 2017 and a new energy replacement plan must be decided upon.
The Four Corners, where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah intersect, was dubbed a national energy sacrifice zone in a report by the National Academy of Sciences during the Nixon Administration. The area has been mined for coal and uranium and drilled for oil and gas for decades.
The Four Corners Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant near the San Juan Generating Plant. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
It is home to aging coal plants that generate power for much of the Southwest and California. These dirty coal plants helped create a giant methane cloud discovered by NASA.
The area is also home to significant cultural and natural sites, including the Bisti Badlands, Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde National Park, and the Navajo Nation.
Bisti Badlands. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon in Northern New Mexico. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
In a victory by environmental groups aided by the EPA, the San Juan Generating Station, operated by the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), will shut down two of four units to make the plant compliant with the Clean Air Act Regional Haze Requirements.
To replace the energy the units produced, PNM had to come up with a plan that is cost-effective for ratepayers who will be footing the bill for the replacement power. The PNM plan calls for increasing its use of coal in the remaining units and utilizing more nuclear energy, along with smaller amounts of natural gas and a small amount of solar power.
It doubles down on dirty energy use, and effectively weds New Mexico ratepayers to coal and nuclear power for decades to come.
The state’s Public Regulation Commission (PRC) must weigh in on the PNM plan by mid-March.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
