As you know, the 2nd part of the bifurcated San Juan Generating Station abandonment case begins next week with a public hearing on PNM's proposal for replacement power. You are invited to give 3 minutes of testimony. Our analysis of PNM's proposed scenario found:
Same tricks, different case. This time in order to force interveners and regulators to go along with their preferred replacement power scenario, PNM cleverly manipulated the timing and procedural schedule to leave only one scenario that can actually be implemented...theirs. The alternative resource bids have literally expired as possibilities! Stale. Moot. Impossible to be considered as alternative scenarios! This is against the law! (including the 5-0 opinion that NEE won in front of the Supreme Court).
PNM's 280 megawatt gas plant is sited for location at the San Juan at the Generating Station - the plant will provide a total of 5 permanent jobs for the area and continue to harm the health of the local community, land, air, and water.
The gas plant would require building a gas pipeline into the area, exposing residents to risk of spill.
The proposed plant would use 191,625 gal of potable water and 103,005,000 gal of other water annually.
It would be built by “Proenergy Services, LLC,” a Missouri corporation -- how is this out-of-state corporation helping local economic development?
This gas plant is short-sighted by design. PNM has set an accelerated depreciation schedule for the plant - planning to recover the capital cost of building the plant (plus its 9.5% return on equity) by 2045 when the RPS will require 100% “carbon free” energy in New Mexico.
While the energy from the plant won't be serving New Mexicans past 2045 - one possibility is that PNM could continue to keep the plant operating (and polluting) and sell to neighboring markets.
Why not invest in renewables plus storage and make a lasting contribution to our energy needs and economic benefits to host communities?
We know that renewables plus storage outcompete fossil fuels and nuclear on price -- they are also the only responsible option given the climate emergency and environmental justice crisis we face.
Come to the dinner potluck we are co-hosting with Earth Care's YUCCA on Monday, January 20th from 4:30-6:30 to hear from our legal team, Just Transition team, and the youth-leaders of our community and prep for your testimony. We will provide an overview of the case and a fact sheet to help you prepare. See details and RSVP below.
The position that natural gas is a necessary transition energy must be challenged and now is the time to do it. Nationwide, energy companies plan to add at least 150 new gas plants and thousands of miles of pipelines in the years ahead. While gas-fired plants generate only half as much carbon pollution as coal, natural gas investment has the potential to lock in decades of new fossil-fuel use right as scientists say emissions need to fall drastically by midcentury to avert the worst impacts of climate disruption.
Gas development in New Mexico threatens our water supplies, the health of our Indigenous communities who already suffer from the cumulative impacts of decades of extraction, and the environment. Further, given the political and economic pressure to transition to renewables, gas infrastructure built now will likely be abandoned within the next 15 years. While utilities won’t mind collecting for their undepreciated assets (given that they stand to profit from the capital-intensive development of new gas infrastructure with a 9.575% guaranteed return on investment) – ratepayers will be left holding the bag for more “stranded assets” thanks to the ETA.
We successfully stopped two new gas plants proposed by PNM, one in 2015 and one in 2016.
Now it's time to stop this one. Please join us!
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