The penalties of feel-good energy policies

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Because of the unproven notion that burning fossil fuels causes global warming, saving energy has become the cultural norm with the expectation that reducing the use of coal-fueled electricity and gasoline will help everyone. More and more wind and solar generation is being installed and cars use less and less gas, with some being all-electric. This should be a good thing, but it ends up costing everyone—and disproportionately penalizes the poor. Installing an unsubsidized residential solar photovoltaic (PV) system is expensive and the payoff can be decades. As a result, they are typically purchased by only those with substantial disposable income. A few years ago, I participated in a “solar fiesta.” I live in rural New Mexico where we often have snow on the ground from late October through early March. Due to cost, I only heat my home to 58 degrees in the winter. I have a large south-facing roof surface. I figured I was a prime candidate for a solar PV system. I visited different vendors. When I asked about the payoff, one vendor looked down his nose and emphasized: “It is not about the payoff.” I could not afford to go solar. I still burn pellets in my stove and bundle up all winter.

Those, who can afford the up-front costs to take advantage of the free energy from the sun, can avoid paying their utility company anything. They may even feel smug that they have beat the system. With net metering, when they generate extra power, the meter may literally spin backward. When the sun isn’t shining, they use the power they’ve banked. The end of the month total can balance out.

However, there are still costs to the electric company. The usage is still monitored. The home, or business, is still tied to the grid. The wires and other system services require maintenance and those costs are factored into the per-kilowatt-hour price and are borne by all the rate payers. But what happens when the wealthy few, who have the luxury of installing a solar system, no longer contribute to the communal cost of service? The overall cost must be spread to a smaller pool of users, which means rate increases for everyone—except those who are getting “free” electricity from the sun. Read rest of column here: News New Mexico

The penalties of feel-good energy policies

Mexico Arrests Key Figure in Fast and Furious

From biggovernment.com - The suspect is Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo aka “El Marrufo” or “El Jaguar.” He was the head of la Gente Nueva in Chihuahua and the Sinaloa cartel’s top man in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s most dangerous city. He was also wanted in the US for drug trafficking and the recipient of high powered weapons from Operation Fast and Furious. He owned the home that was raided in April 2011 that had the guns from Fast & Furious.  More News New Mexico

Mexico Arrests Key Figure in Fast and Furious

Obama's 2012 Budget: Hoping for a Better Reception

NewsNM note (Spence) - At this time last year, the Obama debt commission had made its recommendations. President Obama ignored most of the suggestions and submitted his budget proposal to the Senate. The President's package was defeated 97-0, with not a single member of his own party voteing for his budget. No budget bill was ever passed in 2011 though Republican budget proposals did get many votes in both the House and the Senate. Now President Obama takes his 2012 budget to the Senate.   Fox News  - President Obama is offering his spending blueprint for the next decade -- an election-year document that seeks to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction through cuts in government spending, higher taxes and inclusion of last year's debt-ceiling deal for deficit reduction.

At the same time, Obama will ask for substantial spending increases on infrastructure and job training, but will offer few reforms to entitlement programs, which take up 40 percent of the annual federal budget.
Republicans, who are vowing to oppose Obama's tax increases, have planned several events Monday to counter the president's release. On Sunday House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said the president's proposal is full of gimmicks and does little to reduce the deficit or curb the rapid growth of benefit programs like Medicare. "Medicare is going bankrupt ... The president's health care law takes the $500 billion from Medicare to spend on Obamacare," he said. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Obama's 2012 Budget: Hoping for a Better Reception

Seante Passes ERB Reform Bill

The New Mexico State Senate passed a bill to help make the Education Retirement Board retirement fund (ERB) for employees of public schools and universities solvent. Due to lack of funding and an unsustainable benefit structure the fund will be insolvent in less than 30 years without major changes. The substitute bill for SB 150- Educational Retirement Changes- makes primarily three adjustments.

Stuart Ingle

1) It requires both public schools and universities and their employees to gradually contribute more out of each paycheck to the retirement fund over the next seven years. On a graduating scale until 2020, employees will contribute 3.4% more of their salary into their retirement fund and the schools would contribute 2.5% more into the fund.
2) The bill will also create for the first time the minimum retirement age of 55 to receive retirement benefits for those starting to work after this July. Now, a person could start receiving retirement pay as early as age 45 if they had started working at age 20

3) The bill requires eight years of service to be vest compared to five years for employees who start after this July.

The legislation is sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle (R-Portales) who said, “The changes have to be done for the good of our hard working school teachers and university personnel so they will receive the retirement they have worked so diligently for. Without these changes, the money will run out and won’t be there for the future.” The contribution changes will affect all public education employees. The bill passed 30 to 12.

Seante Passes ERB Reform Bill

What the Hay, First Bill Arrives on Gov's Desk

Santa Fe—Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle’s hay bill is the first bill,(outside of the feed bill that pays for the session), to pass both houses and to be placed on the Governor’s desk for her action. Senator Ingle said, “Perhaps being the first bill to pass both houses this session can spotlight how important this hay bill is to solving a huge problem for all New Mexicans,” Senator Ingle said. “This bill is especially important for the dairy industry in Southeastern New Mexico that has struggled to feed its livestock because of the extreme drought in recent years.”
Hay in recent years has had to be hauled in from other states and as far as Canada creating challenges to the agriculture industry. Senator Ingle’s bill will allow oversized hay loads, that will not forego highway safety, to be transported on state highways.
“On behalf of the agriculture industry, I am hopeful the governor will sign this bill quickly so it can take effect immediately with its emergency clause,” Senator Ingle said. Ingle also said, “The point here is to make it easier to haul hay.”

What the Hay, First Bill Arrives on Gov's Desk

One PRC Reform gets Committee OK

NMPolitics - A proposal to move the Corporations Division of the Public Regulation Commission to the Secretary of State’s office passed the Senate Rules Committee today by a unanimous vote.
The Secretary of State’s Office supported the measure (HJR 16), which is perceived by many to be the least controversial of the three pieces of reform being pushed by Think New Mexico.
It must now pass the Judiciary Committee before it can be heard on the Senate floor. Senate passage of the joint resolution would mean a constitutional amendment would appear on the ballot in the November general election. The Legislature would have the opportunity to decide the final details during the 2013 session. Read full story here: News New Mexico

One PRC Reform gets Committee OK

Capitol Report NM Exclusive: GOP will appeal state Supreme Court redistricting to federal court on Monday

From Capitol Report New Mexico - Capitol Report New Mexico has learned that Republicans allied with the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez will formally file an appeal in federal court on Monday (Feb. 13) over the New Mexico Supreme Court’s reversal of a House of Representatives redistricting map OK’d back on Jan. 3 by a retired judge the high court itself assigned to tackle the hydra-headed problem of re-apportioning districts for the next 10 years across the state. Democrats embraced the 4-1 ruling by the state Supreme Court to kick the House redistricting decision back to Judge Jim Hall, who adopted a map that was sponsored by attorneys for the Republican governor after hearing from attorneys from the Democratically-controlled legislature as well as a number of other lawyers representing various other political interests in New Mexico. In the 33-page decision handed down Friday, four of the justices declared that Hall’s decision on House districts ”was not politically neutral” because, the court said, Hall’s map increased Republican swing seats from five to eight and Republican-leaning districts from 31 to 34. The four justices also insisted that a specific district in Clovis needed to be made up of a Hispanic majority voting area. Even before the remand, supporters of the Martinez-sponsored map pointed out that the map Hall adopted created more Hispanic-voting age population districts than any other map before him. And one Republican said 10 years ago – in the last redistricting fight that also went to the trial – a redistricting judge adopted a House map that increased Democrat-leaning districts from 36 to 39. Republicans in New Mexico have long grumbled about the state Supreme Court, which is packed with declared Democrats and on Friday, a spokesman for the governor called the ruling “a partisan decision.” Read more

Capitol Report NM Exclusive: GOP will appeal state Supreme Court redistricting to federal court on Monday

After 20 years, the Carpenters are ready for their close-up

From the Farmington Daily Times - FARMINGTON — Kim and Krickitt Carpenter didn't want their story in the hands of just anybody.  To keep it accurate, the Farmington couple wrote the book about their saga themselves.  The Carpenters sold the movie rights to their story in 1996 but objected to movie scripts that strayed too far from the truth. One such script is still used as an inch-tall riser to balance a family portrait. But after 19 years, a book deal, magazine articles, dozens of nationally televised interviews and two children, the Kim and Krickitt story is ready for Hollywood.  "The Vow" a movie based on the Carpenters, will be released just in time for Valentine's Day. In November 1993, the Carpenters were in an automobile accident on I-40 west of Gallup. Both were badly injured and Krickitt, who doctors said had less than a 1-percent chance of surviving, was comatose for months after the accident.  Krickitt woke with no recollection of the year prior to the accident, which included all memories of her husband, Kim, and their marriage 10 weeks before the crash. "The Vow" is based on the story of Kim and Krickitt's recovery and romance, plus the usual Hollywood sensationalism and glamour, the couple said. Read more

After 20 years, the Carpenters are ready for their close-up

Wild Hogs threaten NM farmers

From the Alamogordo Daily News - CLOVIS, N.M.—State and federal officials say feral pigs are ravaging eastern New Mexico's range and farmland.  An astonishing reproductive rate has seen hogs spread to 17 of New Mexico's 33 counties in just seven years.  The wild swine have rooted up Quay County farmer and rancher Ted Rush's feed roads and destroyed milo and sorghum crops. He said he has killed more than 300 feral swine on his land.  "My wheat fields looked like they'd been bombed by the military, there were huge craters everywhere," Rush said.  The pigs could have a devastating effect on New Mexico's economy.  U.S. Agriculture Department wildlife specialist Ron Jones is tracking the invasion of feral pigs into New Mexico. He tells the Clovis News Journal (http://bit.ly/wd1yfA) that he uses abandoned windmill sites with running water to track the pig's progress across the state.  "There are only two kinds of land owners in New Mexico—those who have feral pigs, and those who will," Jones said. Read more

Wild Hogs threaten NM farmers

The Anatomy of a "Hatchet Job"

You can see this one coming from a mile away. Hanna Skandera is going to be unfairly singled out by Senate Democrats and her professional credentials are going to be distorted and smeared. What’s behind this scheme is the influence of unions (not school teachers) to establish a political blockade that prevents all forms of educational reform and change.

Hanna Skandera

Though the Senate has hardly moved quickly, and there has been more than an occasional instance of rude Senatorial behavior when questioning nominees (Linda Lopez), slowly but surely the Senate is finally getting around to confirming the Governor’s selections made eons ago.

The confirmation of Hanna Skandera is noticeably missing from the process and reasonable people have concluded that Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez has already made it known to union interests that all they have to do is wait until other confirmations go through before he engineers the trashing and trampling of the Governor’s Public Education nominee.

Which Senators will be handed the hatchets when it is finally time to shift gears and butcher Skandera's solid credentials and kill her confirmation? Nobody is sure. But the smart betting says that those assigned by Sanchez to do the hacking, will also be the recipients of considerable support from reform blocking unions who are helping guide the process from behind the scenes.

Everyone can see this hatchet job coming…..from a mile away. It is the sort of terrible behavior that has plagued New Mexico educational achievement for decades.

The Anatomy of a "Hatchet Job"