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| Mitt Romney |
Something new: Romney releasing energy plan in New Mexico
Obama Co-Chair Gave $10,000 to Ryan PAC
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| Marc Benioff |
Marc Benioff, a national campaign co-chair for President Obama's re-election campaign, donated $10,000 to Ryan's political action committee earlier just two months ago (in June), according to CNN.
Apparently Benioff met with Paul Ryan and was very impressed with his budget reform ideas. According the CNN Benioff said Ryan's proposals, “Offer 'a lot of the right long-term thinking for the country."
Now that doesn’t sounds like an extremist as much as it does a truth teller.
WAC is Dying, NMSU Odd Man Out
ESPN - The commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference said Monday that it has become apparent the league won't have enough football members to compete after this season, and his focus now is on trying to keep the conference together for other sports.
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| NMSU A.D. McKinley Boston |
The 50-year-old WAC would be the first Division I conference to give up on football since the Southwest Conference dissolved in 1995, and it might go the way of the SWC, too, and cease to exist altogether.
"It doesn't mean we've given up on the idea of football for the future, but it's apparent we don't have enough members in 2013 to play football," Jeff Hurd told The Associated Press.
That means New Mexico State would have to join Idaho and play as an FBS independent next year. The WAC's five other football members -- Louisiana Tech, San Jose State, Texas State, Utah State and Texas-San Antonio -- leave the league after this year. Read full story here: News New Mexico
PNM Explains a Few Facts About Renewables
We are committed to meeting the requirements of the New Mexico Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires investor-owned utilities to have 15 percent renewable energy generation by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020. In the past two years we have installed 22 megawatts of solar energy and we now have enough solar and wind energy to power more than 80,000 homes. We've also provided energy efficiency programs to help our customers save 192 gigawatt hours of energy. While it might be nice to consider replacing coal-generated electricity with wind and solar immediately, unfortunately it’s not technically or financially possible, with today’s technology.
First, the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. Second, electricity is used the moment it is produced – there are no large storage facilities. But PNM did kick off an innovative battery storage project south of Albuquerque last year to help overcome that hurdle. See the associated article in this email.
No energy provider in the world offers 100 percent renewable energy. The Renewable Portfolio Standard says California has a long-term goal of 33 percent renewable energy by 2020. See the state-by-state goals. We estimate that if we replace coal-fired electricity generation with renewable energy, it would take 18,000 acres of solar panels and cost $4 billion. Plus, that only gets you enough energy an average of 40 percent of the time. We intend to continue taking advantage of the renewable energy resources that New Mexico is blessed with. In April, we proposed adding 20 additional megawatts of solar energy in 2013, 10 megawatts of geothermal energy, and other renewable energy.
Martinez Ready for "Prime Time"
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| Susana Martinez |
Martinez political adviser Jay McCleskey said the governor will speak next Tuesday night at the convention but the exact time hasn't been determined because the convention schedule isn't final. Republicans are holding their presidential nominating convention Aug. 27-30 in Tampa, Fla. A primetime speaking role increases the potential for national television exposure for Martinez, who is the nation's first Hispanic female governor. Read full story here: News New Mexico
NMSU Regents Sort Through DACC Nursing Mess
Huerta detailed communication efforts with the students to date and shared information from the National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission (NLNAC) report on the reasons cited for non-compliance.
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| NMSU Regent Javier Gonzales |
"I want to say how disappointed and sorry we are that the nursing program accreditation has been lost. We wanted to keep our accreditation; unfortunately that did not happen," Huerta said.
Huerta said the DACC administration had remained hopeful that increases to the pass rate, which was 100 percent in December 2011, and other improvements would help them hold on to the accreditation. Huerta said options for the students are the largest concern at the moment. She indicated that students could remain in the program as DACC applies to regain accreditation. She also indicated other options were being considered including the review of transcripts of students currently in the DACC nursing program for possible transfer to the BSN program in the NMSU College of Health and Social Services. Such a transfer option would allow students who go on to graduate to receive a bachelor's degree from a fully accredited program. CHSS does not offer an associate degree.
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| Barbara Couture |
In addition to working with the NLNAC, DACC administration will be meeting with the CEOs of Memorial Medical Center, MountainView Regional Medical Center and Advanced Care and Rehabilitation Hospital to see if they will consider employment options for those students coming out of the program soon. Read full story here: News New Mexico
Let the NMFA Finger-Pointing Begin
On Monday the oversight committee in charge of monitoring the major public lender had plenty of questions of their own for NMFA staff and investigators looking into the mess.
The NMFA submitted late audits the last three years, including a forged 2011 audit former controller Greg Campbell is charged with creating. That was enough for the State Auditor's Office to put the NMFA on its "at risk" list earlier this year.
But Rep. Jane Powdrell-Culbert (R - Corrales) said state auditor Hector Balderas didn't do enough. "We should have been notified that it was late," Powdrell-Culbert said. Balderas shot back, saying that it was the oversight committee that didn't do enough in this case. Read full story here: News New Mexico
Coming Soon: Higher Energy Prices, Shortages
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| Marita Noon |
The real costs of renewable energy are coming out—both in dollars and daily impacts. After years of hearing about “free” energy from the sun and wind, people are discovering that they’ve been lied to.
On Tuesday, August 14, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) approved a new renewable energy rate rider that will allow the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) to start recovering a portion of its recent development costs for building five solar facilities around the state, a pilot solar facility with battery storage, and wind resource procurements. The renewable rider could be on ratepayers' bills by the end of the month—“depending on when the commission publishes its final order,” said PNM spokeswoman Susan Spooner.
The rate rider currently represents about a $1.34 increase for an average residence using 600 kilowatt hours of electricity per month—or a little more than $16 per year. This increase seems miniscule until you realize that this is only a small part of increases to come. PNM needs to recover $18.29 million in renewable expenditures in 2012 and the rate rider only addresses monies spent in the last four to five months. The remaining expense will be carried into 2013. Read full column here: News New Mexico
New Mexico sees spike in Independent voter registration
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