Ben Luce Guest Blog: The Real Reason Desert Rock Coal Plant is Happening

This is a guest blog from Ben Luce of Break the Grip!:
Have no doubt, plans for the Desert Rock Power Plant are still rolling forward: Break The Grip! has learned that Sithe Global intends once again to seek a tax incentive from the New Mexico Legislature, and recently obtained more money from the Navajo Nation to keep their development on track. Although there are upcoming hearings on the plant's Environmental Impact Statement, there is little reason to believe that these hearings will be little more than pro-forma inputs to an unresponsive EPA.

Why is this happening? How, in an age of near panic about global warming, and with New Mexico supposedly adopting greenhouse gas reduction targets and policies to achieve those measures, can another massive conventional coal plant be built in New Mexico?

The answer is simple: The Richardson Administration and the Majority Leadership in the Legislature have utterly failed to oppose this project. True, the Administration and the Legislature have little jurisdiction over the Navajo Nation. But this is beside the point: They do have jurisdiction over the proposed tax incentive, and if the Governor were really serious about doing something about global warming, he would use his bully pulpit to oppose the project and press for economic incentives to help convince the Navajo Nation that they do not need Desert Rock.

Instead, Richardson only indicated some mild concern about Desert Rock's impact in one newspaper article during the last Legislative Session, and nothing since, a far cry from his extensive opposition to drilling in Otero Mesa (which he also lacked jurisdiction over). The impact from Desert Rock will likely be far greater than drilling in Otero Mesa, by about a factor of 50 in terms of emissions (and more over the long term).

What about the Democratic Majority Leadership? They were fully FOR Desert Rock: The Senate Sponsor was the Senate Pro Tem Ben Altamirano and the House Leadership, headed by Speaker Ben Lujan, was by all accounts pushing hard for Desert Rock behind the scenes. Watch for the Speaker to route the Desert Rock incentive directly to the House Business & Industry Committee in the next session, to simply bypass the House Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Committee (which opposed and helped kill the bill during this past session). The House Business & Industry Committee is completely hopeless from an environmental issues standpoint (and the committee is chaired by the Speaker's goddaughter).

Why is the Democratic Leadership so in favor of Desert Rock? It is enough to note that the lobbyist of Sithe Global, Richard Minzer, is a major fund-raiser for the Democratic Party, and that Sithe Global has lots of money to contribute. It's another classic example of undue corporate influence in New Mexico.

It's great that there are environmental groups and Navajo groups like Dooda Desert Rock out there fighting hard. But they have no power to stop this project directly: Their role can only be to get our governments to oppose this project. Either that or be dragged off the site in hand-cuffs at the bitter end.

Unfortunately, they will likely fail to sway our state leaders, because the Governor, and the majority leadership, completely let us down. And the Navajo Nation, in the face of the possibility of $50 million in cash from Sithe Global each year, and with no counter offer from the State, is unlikely to change course either.

It's time for the New Mexico public to realize that the environmental and Navajo opposition to Desert Rock has effectively been steam-rolled by our elected officials, and to start really holding those officials accountable.

You can email the Governor at https://www.governor.state.nm.us/emailchoice.php?mm=6.

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Ben Luce, the former Chair and Policy Director of the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy (CCAE). Luce recently launched the nonpartisan citizen action group Break the Grip! because of concerns about the undue influence of powerful corporations on New Mexico government. Ben's previous guest blogs can be found here and here.

Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their views on pertinent issues. The views expressed may or may not represent our views. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand side of the page.

You can access recent posts on DFNM about the Desert Rock Power Plant and the public environmental impact statement hearings now being held around the state here and here.

July 16, 2007 at 09:03 AM in Corporatism, Democratic Party, Energy, Environment, Guest Blogger, Native Americans | Permalink

Comments

I'm so glad people are putting out the truth on this and how the Democratic "leaders" here are pretending to be one thing and then voting another way. They are "green" but make sure big energy gets a big advantage. They are "for universal health care" but make sure big insurance gets a big advantage. They claim they are for equal rights for all but balk at passing even a modest domestic partnership bill. Don't even get me started on how Democrats stopped the impeachment bill in our last legislative session.

There is too much at stake to allow this crap to continue. Its obvious to anyone with a brain that NO MORE COAL FIRED POWER PLANTS should be allowed. Yet here we have our "green" governor and presidential candidate sitting on his hands about the Desert Rock plant.

Thanks for helping get the truth out. We need more of this.

Posted by: | Jul 16, 2007 10:02:50 AM

Bad enough for Democrats not to be speaking out strongly against the atrocity of Desert Rock power plant but to be pushing for a tax break for the company that wants to build it is just beyond comprehension.

Even Texas has stopped the string of coal fired power plants that tried to rush into there. Big coal knows they will be stopped soon so they are running around trying to built new dirty plants wherever they can get away with it. I guess they know that our Democrats here and the Navajo Nation "leaders" are on the take.

Posted by: stop the insanity | Jul 16, 2007 10:27:53 AM

BR and his lobby friends
https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070720/ap_on_el_pr/richardson_wealth&printer=1;_ylt=AjQDQeorvoWDUkYM4KSdafNh24cA

Progressive what ?

Posted by: Mike | Jul 20, 2007 12:50:48 PM

What kind of new energy is ok then?

We have coal, and let me tell you "progressives" something right now, we're going to end up using it, whether you like it or not.

You'll end up burning it yourself to stay warm, cool, or keep the lights on.

Why don't you quit pretending that there is some kind of clean affordable energy out there that we just refuse to take advantage of? There is oil natural gas, and coal. We don't have much oil, natural gas is going to hit the wall in the next few years.

Coal is one of the things we have a lot of. We need to start CTL yesterday, period. Or we'll just have to burn it. Or get ready to go back to the pre-industrial age.

Any part of pre-industrial you don't understand?
Go to theoildrum.com to really learn about our energy situation.

Tom deSabla

Posted by: Tom deSabla | Jul 20, 2007 11:46:52 PM

Read this article:

https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/05fal/coal1.asp?gclid=CL3RqJuAuY0CFShVYQody1bvEg

If we follow your suggestions, we'll be experiencing something much more bleak than the preindustrial age if any of us survive. Sorry we and the rest of the planet's ecosystems simply can't afford to burn coal using present methods.

The only hope for coal is based on development of carbon capture and sequestration technology and until it is mastered not one single coal fired plant should be allowed to be built.

As for CTL, it's a filthy and unsustainable energy source. We need to generously fund other technologies we can use to run vehicles as well as reorganize our transportation systems to minimize individual vehicle use. For instance, all those massive trucks on the road carrying goods long distance should be replaced ASAP with expanded rail service.

How much do you want to bet that Tom deSabla makes his bucks in the dirty energy biz?

And by the way Tom, it's not only "progressives" who are facing reality about climate change and energy. Most humans able to reason see the handwriting on the wall.

Posted by: eco-me | Jul 21, 2007 10:02:52 AM

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