{"id":6303,"date":"2015-03-08T08:19:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T13:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=6303"},"modified":"2015-03-08T08:19:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T13:19:09","slug":"will-new-mexico-double-down-on-dirty-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=6303","title":{"rendered":"Will New Mexico Double Down On Dirty Energy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will New Mexico Double Down On Dirty Energy?<\/a><\/h2>\n

The future of energy development in New Mexico\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The Four Corners, where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah intersect, was dubbed a\u00a0national energy sacrifice zone<\/a>\u00a0in 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe\u00a0Four Corners\u00a0Generating Station, a coal-fired\u00a0power plant\u00a0near the San Juan Generating Plant. \u00a92015 Julie\u00a0Dermansky<\/em>
\nIt 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\u00a0discovered by\u00a0NASA<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The area is also home to significant cultural and natural sites, including the Bisti Badlands,\u00a0Chaco Canyon<\/a>, Mesa Verde National Park, and the Navajo Nation.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBisti Badlands. \u00a92015 Julie Dermansky<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nFajada Butte in Chaco Canyon in Northern New Mexico. \u00a92015 Julie Dermansky<\/em><\/p>\n

In a victory by environmental groups\u00a0aided by the\u00a0EPA<\/span><\/a>, the San Juan Generating Station, operated by the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM<\/span>), will shut down two of four units to make the plant compliant with the Clean Air Act Regional Haze Requirements.<\/p>\n

To replace the energy the units produced,\u00a0PNM<\/span>\u00a0had to come up with a plan that is cost-effective for ratepayers who will be footing the bill for the replacement power. The\u00a0PNM<\/span>\u00a0plan 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.<\/p>\n

It doubles down on dirty energy use, and effectively weds New Mexico ratepayers to coal and nuclear power for decades to come.<\/p>\n

The state’s Public Regulation Commission (PRC<\/span>) must weigh in on the\u00a0PNM<\/span>\u00a0plan by mid-March.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will New Mexico Double Down On Dirty Energy? The future of energy development in New Mexico\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6304,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6303\/revisions\/6304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}