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© 2022 NEW MEXICO NEWS SERVICES  11/21/22

Energy Transition Act moves in fits and starts

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

     During debates of the Energy Transmission Act in 2019, some boosters made it sound like New Mexico could just switch from coal to renewable. Poof!

     Making the law a reality hasn’t exactly been a snap of the fingers. Lately, legislators are challenged to help laid-off coal miners pay for insurance.

     On Sept. 29, San Juan Generating Station, which had roared for 50 years, went silent. It employed hundreds of people in San Juan County, and their paychecks circulated through the local economy. 

     As a PNM spokesperson in the late 1970s, I led press tours and wrote about the plant. I always thought of the San Juan and its workers as a mechanical marvel, shooting electricity out to millions of homes. We were proud that the plant was as clean as technology could make it – I also spent a lot of time explaining the costly devices added to scrub emissions.

     The idea that the operation would just end and send people home was hard to grasp. For years, renewables were so pricey they were out of reach. Suddenly, they were competitive, and climate change demanded a response. PNM announced in 2017 that the plant would close in five years.

     So the clock was already ticking when state lawmakers began debating the Energy Transmission Act, which heralded life after coal. Setting the state on a path toward renewable energy, the bill directed utilities to generate electricity using 50% percent renewables by 2030 and 80% by 2040. Sources would have to be carbon free by 2050. It promised $40 million for severance pay and job training, as well as community development projects.

     The governor and Navajo Nation president hailed the bill. There was a sense that New Mexico could model energy transition for the nation. But Farmington officials, holding out for the possibility of carbon capture technology, opposed the bill and the closure.

     Soon Escalante Generating Station northwest of Grants read the writing on the wall and closed. 

     Three years later, the transition is moving fitfully but moving. Sarah Propst, secretary of the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, told the online Energy and Environment News that utilities are on track to meet the state’s renewable portfolio standard. 

     However, supply chain snags have held up renewable projects intended to replace coal-fired power and provide jobs. For that reason, PNM operated its last coal unit longer than expected. Even now its reserve margin has been alarmingly thin – too thin, some argue. PNM, the Public Regulation Commission and some of the parties have also argued loudly over how the company would recover its costs. And conversion of the plant to carbon capture is still a flaming controversy.

     Recently, unions asked the state for $6 million to reimburse out-of-work miners for their out-of-pocket health insurance costs, according to the online New Mexico Political Report. The legislative Energy Transition Act Committee will decide that question, as well as choosing which projects to back. Some of the proposed projects will create jobs more quickly than others.

     Former state Rep. Tom Taylor, a Republican who’s helping direct the discussion on behalf of the Economic Development Department, prefers to use the impact money to move projects that will create jobs. To underwrite the miners’ insurance costs, he recommends an emergency allocation from the Legislature.

     That suggests Taylor doesn’t think there’s enough funding allocated to help workers AND support replacement industry, which raises another question. Keeping in mind the state provided little to no help to other towns that lost an economic pillar (Roswell, Grants, Raton), how much is enough for Farmington?

     Something said of the Energy Transaction Act in 2019 was that it would never be done. Lawmakers expected they’d need to keep adjusting it long into the future. Developments of the last few years suggest why.

© 2022 NEW MEXICO NEWS SERVICES  11/21/22

Young voters made a difference in mid-term elections

By Diane Denish

Corner to Corner

     In a column before Election Day, I explored the participation of young voters (ages18 to 29) since the 2016 elections. My research showed young voters have been voting in increasingly higher percentages, including in New Mexico and surrounding states. The question to my Generation Z granddaughter and in my own mind was this: Would they do so again in the 2022 midterms? My granddaughter was optimistic; I was uncertain.

     Her optimism paid off. This year, young voters had the second highest youth turnout for midterm elections in 30 years. In previous mid-term elections young voter turnout nationwide hovered around 20 percent. This year, that number was just under 30 percent and in battleground states such as Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and other places it was slightly above that number. CIRCLE, the Center for Information Research and Learning at Tufts University, has been studying young voter behavior for two decades. This year, their preliminary report concludes that “it’s clear young people had a major impact on the 2022 midterms.”

     In Wisconsin, the incumbent Gov. Tony Evers won re-election by a slim margin of 3%. Evers’ opponent, businessman Tim Michels, was an election denier endorsed by Donald Trump. Data shows young voters preferred Democratic candidates by a margin of 40 points. They made the difference for Evers.

     In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won by a 12-point margin. Voters also approved Proposition 3, securing a woman’s right to a safe, legal abortion by a similar margin. Young voters supported Whitmer by 36 points over her opponent, an election denier, Tudor Dixon. At the same time young voters overwhelmingly supported Prop. 3 making a difference for women in Michigan.

     Josh Shapiro, governor-elect of Pennsylvania, won his election over extremist and election denier Doug Mastriano by a wide margin. And Katie Hobbs, the current secretary of state of Arizona, defeated another MAGA election denier, Kari Lake. In both states the youth vote was over 30%, exceeding the nation’s average of 27%.

     In New Mexico, the statistics are not yet available about young voter participation, but all signs point to strong engagement. Election officials reported long lines and waiting in polling places located at UNM, NMSU, Highlands University and Western New Mexico University. Ten thousand voters took advantage of same day registration on Election Day, with a significant percentage of them on college campuses. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham won re-election by six points over her opponent who wanted to ban abortion.

     Recently, I attended a faith-based group discussion about the midterms. At one point the discussion leader asked what surprised us or made us hopeful about the elections. More than one person said, “the number of young people who voted.” The group ranged in age from early 40s to early 70s. For most of them, the participation of young voters was a surprise 

     For Jack Lobel, age 18 and a first-time voter, this wasn’t the case. Jack is a first-year student at Columbia University and the communications director for Voters of Tomorrow, a non-profit that engages GenZ voters. Recently, he wrote in USA Today about concerns driving young voters to the polls: a burning planet, abortion access, “weapons of war” in our schools, assault on democracy. When addressing growing participation, he said 2018 may have been seen as a fluke, 2020 maybe a coincidence, but 2022 shows a definite pattern. 

     Young voters can no longer be an afterthought or dismissed. Their participation in 2022 and their clear impact on races around the country sent a message. They are engaged, here to stay, and their ranks are increasing.

     Young voter participation should no longer be a surprise but a wave of hope for everyone.