Democracy for New Mexico

Report Says Clean Energy Better for Navajo Economic Development than Desert Rock

Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Diné CARE) held a press conference in Santa Fe on Friday, January 18, 2008 and released a new report that spells out a host of renewable energy alternatives to Desert Rock, a controversial coal-fired power plant proposed for the Navajo Reservation. Dine CARE and other environmental groups have argued that Desert Rock, which would be the third coal-fired plant in the Four Corners region, would harm the environment and residents' health

The comprehensive report contains more than 160 pages and dozens of maps, pie charts and graphs showing how renewable energy projects would compare to Desert Rock. It also provides a comprehensive look at how the tribe's Diné Fundamental Law—based on centuries of customary, traditional, natural and common law—can be applied to the modern problems of resource management and energy development.

Investing in renewable energy development and energy efficiency could provide more jobs and economic benefits for the Navajo Nation than building the proposed $3 billion Desert Rock Energy Project, according to the economic analysis, prepared in consultation with Ecos Consulting.

Solar power plant design prototype

The report compares sources of clean energy, such as solar and wind power, with coal, assessing economic factors such as short- and long-term employment, financial risks, environmental and health impacts, potential costs of carbon pollution, and profitability for the tribe. When the estimated economic benefits and costs of the proposed 1,500-megawatt pulverized coal power plant are weighed against benefits and costs of renewable energy development, the analysis determined that “developing clean-energy resources rather than coal provides a net economic advantage.”

“Wind, solar and energy-efficiency technologies, which are cost-effective, reliable and available, would provide greater Navajo economic development and lower cost electricity than Desert Rock, with fewer negative consequences and more sustainable benefits,” concluded Ecos Consulting co-author Chris Calwell. “Burning coal to produce electricity is not even the best, let alone the only form of economic development for the Navajo Nation.”

This claim counters the assumptions in the recent Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Desert Rock prepared by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The federal government’s analysis predetermined the need to use Navajo coal resources without considering alternative forms of economic development and energy resources already available to the tribe.

The report states that Northern Arizona University found potential wind capacity on tribal lands in northeastern Arizona to be over 11,000 megawatts. There's also the possibility of more than 48,000 megawatts of solar generation on Navajo land, according to the report.

Click to read the entire release.

To obtain a copy of the report by Ecos Consulting, please send an email to:

• Dailan Long, email: dailan.jake@gmail.com
• Lori Goodman, email: kiyaani@frontier.net

To keep current or to get involved in activism on this issue, visit the Desert-Rock-Blog and the website of Diné CARE.

You can find some of our previous coverage of this issue here and here, including links to additional posts and other sources of information.

What You May Not Know About Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Note: Rep. Tom Udall (NM-03) will offer remarks and State Treasurer James Lewis will deliver the keynote address during King holiday celebrations at the state Capitol today at 1:00 PM. The event, organized by Santa Fe's chapter of the NAACP, will also feature music and other speakers who will highlight King's support for higher wages and better conditions for working men and women.

From the War on Greed campaign and Brave New Films: Today we honor Dr. King's birthday. We all know him because of his historic impact on civil rights, but many don't realize that later in life he fought just as passionately for the rights of workers and against the entrenched institutions of injustice.

"Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week."

The War On Greed is exactly this kind of fight. The livelihoods of families have been directly attacked by the actions of buyout billionaires like Henry Kravis putting Wall Street's special interests ahead of his 800,000 employees... and pocketing $51,000 an hour in the process.

The first step must be taxing these buyout billionaires at a fair tax rate. It will not solve all the problems, but it is a strong and forceful beginning. With the presidential campaigns underway, it is the perfect time to force this issue into the campaigns the way we did with Wal-Mart and Iraq for Sale.

As our friend Rev. Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, has said: "We are facing a lunch counter moment for the 21st century."

Please join us at our virtual lunch counter by signing the petition to presidential candidates demanding they pledge to close the loopholes and tax the tax dodgers. Buyout billionaires are a menace to our economy. People are hurting, badly, and we must take beginning steps to bring the issue of corporate greed and economic equality to the nation's attention.

Guest Blog: What Kind of US Secretary of State would NM Governor Richardson Make?

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox, founder of New Millennium Fine Art in Santa Fe and Managing Editor of the weekly Santa Fe Sun News. He is working towards the establishment of a New Mexico Nutrition Council.

Just about everyone is perhaps beginning to recognize the increasingly endangered perception of the USA in every international context and by every standard, and that we are enduring ongoing serious trouble by allowing the most powerful USA corporations to entirely manipulate many branches of government, even if you don’t ascribe to a Hegelian or a Marxian view of history, particularly economic and political history.

I often, perhaps too often, write about the massively malfunctioning and manipulated FDA, and pray that the next President will appoint a real consumer protection advocate as FDA Commissioner, instead of the tools of Big Pharma who have occupied that position for most of the past twenty years, during both Republican and Democratic presidencies.

What could be of graver concern for health than the fact that powerful corporations, both food manufacturers and drug manufacturers, are adding to the destruction of health in hundreds of nations? Perhaps it is that also these corporations and several others like Kellogg, Brown and Root, Halliburton, and Blackwater have manipulated to their satisfaction the day to day functioning of the United States Department of State, to do their bidding in contracts, programs, and throughout the modus operandi of the State Department and the Pentagon. (Some might say it is the other way around with the Pentagon, which seems to always get what it wants from the corporations and from the US Congress).

This has had the cumulative effect of alienating almost all of the Islamic nations with almost 1.2 billion inhabitants, and further besmirches the USA entrepreneurially in South America and in Africa. I am so often reminded of the policies of Manifest Destiny as the USA expanded in the second half of the 19th Century by destroying millions of Native Americans, with a genocidal intent inherent in that policy of “Manifest Destiny.”

I see massive similarities between that and the way LBJ floundered in Vietnam and of course most of the dealings of the Bush administration in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. As a nation, we err terribly by tolerating and continuing such destructive nonsense and folderol.

Healing the Damage
The next President must immediately and surely move to repair this obviously dangerous malaise by appointing an international healer and diplomatist as US Secretary of State. I see no better person by temperament and intellect than New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for this job from 2008 to 2012.

After the bravado and maneuvering by the so-called “top tier” of  candidates has dispensed with the series of votes between now and January 2009, none could imagine any one more qualified, and I don’t mean in the usual resume sense of the word, than our own William Blaine Richardson III.

More important as qualifications were Richardson’s elevation of the international political dialogue amongst the candidates, his early strident support for unequivocally ending the Iraq War, on top of his history as a Cabinet Member (Secretary of Energy) and as United Nations Ambassador (to me, the last is the most important qualification).

Personally, I am sure that he would be a better Secretary of State than Condi, Colin, Madeleine, and Warren Christopher all rolled together. Even the corporations may recognize in time by the decline of their profits, in a strictly Hegelian sense, that they need a Secretary of State who might sow the seeds of international dialogue and conflict resolution, close Guantanamo, reduce the US military presence and its ancillary costs by 40%, reshape a 21st Century Peace Corps, and rapidly return America to a new level of international sanity.

After 8 years of Halliburton running the State Department, military contractors running the Pentagon, Energy Corporations running the Department of industry and writing the Legislation, and Big Pharma running the Food and Drug Administration, maybe intelligent, internationally-minded people in the world have something great to look forward to, after all, eh?

If Richardson still has Presidential aspirations, which I am sure he does, he might take some small comfort in this fact: the first one, Thomas Jefferson, later was elected President. Jefferson was appointed September 26, 1789 by Washington when he was still serving as Ambassador to France.

In fact, James Buchanan, Martin Van Buren, John Quincy Adams, James Madison, and James Monroe all served terms as Secretary of State and as President!

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox of Santa Fe. Guest blogs provide readers an opportunity to express their views on issues relevant to DFNM, and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

ABQ Sierra Clubs Hosts Wildlife Rescue Presentation

From the Sierra Club Central New Mexico Group: At our next general membership meeting, Wildlife Rescue Inc. of New Mexico will present an educational program about their work raising, rehabilitating and releasing injured and orphaned wildlife here in the Albuquerque area and their efforts to educate the public about the necessity of preserving wildlife habitat.  A few of their residents may be joining us as well! The meeting is on Tuesday, January 22nd, from 7 to 9 PM, at the UNM Law School (Stanford NE at Tucker Rd), Room 2405. All are welcome.

RSVP Now: Free EMILY's List Candidate Training in ABQ

From EMILY's List: On February 13th and 14th, EMILY’s List will be offering a terrific training opportunity for pro-choice Democratic women in New Mexico and surrounding states. We would like to extend an invitation for you or someone you know to participate in the training.

As you may know, EMILY's List is a political donor network and political resource for pro-choice Democratic women candidates. EMILY's List has initiated a program designed to recruit and train women to run for and serve in elected office in the states. 

Whether currently serving on the school board, in the State Legislature, or just beginning to think about running for elective office, we are certain this training will provide women with the skills and inspiration needed to successfully run for office.

The program will take place in Albuquerque and begins on the evening of Wednesday, February 13th, with a welcome reception and short session. Thursday, February 14th (8:30 AM to 5:00 PM) will be filled with training on campaign planning, fundraising, message development, voter contact, direct mail and other important campaign issues. 

The program, including materials and meals is free, however space is limited. Partial participation is not possible -- you must commit to attending the full program in order to be allocated a seat at the training.

If you or someone you know is interested in attending, please respond to this invitation as soon as possible by contacting Michelle Stephenson, Political Opportunity Program Assistant, at (202) 419-3073 or mstephenson@emilyslist.org. You will then get more information on the location and lodging information. 

We hope you or someone you know will be able to join us for this important training.  If you have previously attended an EMILY's List training please contact me prior to registration at tbjork@emilyslist.org or (608) 257-2235.

Sincerely,
Tanya Bjork, Regional Director, EMILY's List

Nevada Dem Caucus: Obama Wins in National Pledged Delegate Count

Turns out Obama won more pledged delegates in Nevada than Clinton despite her win in the percentage column. Due to complex precinct weighting and allocation rules, Obama garnered what's being calculated as 13 pledged national convention delegates to Hillary's 12.

With 98% of precincts counted, the Nevada Dem Party reported Clinton had 5,355 (51%) to Obama's 4,773 (45%), a margin of 582 convention delegates elected to county conventions -- not votes. Instead of releasing caucus vote totals, the Nevada Dem Party released the number of county delegates earned by each candidate. As explained in a statement by the State Party Chair, these numbers have been translated by the media into expected pledged delegates to the national convention for each candidate, which results in Obama being shown to have 13 to Clinton's 12. Confusing, no? I wonder if the actual vote totals will eventually be released. It would be interesting to see what the vote margin was between Clinton and Obama, especially since Sen. Harry Reid's son, Rory, was running things on the ground in Nevada as Chairman for the Clinton camp. Almost 120,000 Dems voted in the caucus.

By the way, there are a number of reports circulating about irregularities at caucus sites that are being blamed on Clinton campaign operatives. According to an item in The Atlantic:

David Plouffe, in a succinct statement appended to a released quotation from his boss, Barack Obama, said the Obama campaign was investigating more than 200 reporters of irregularities in Nevada.

“We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself."

(Update: Hillary Wins) Follow Nevada Dem Caucus Results

2:42 PM: Official site back up showing with about 86% reporting:
Senator Hillary Clinton: 50.76%   
Senator Barack Obama: 45.12%   
Senator John Edwards: 3.8%   
Uncommitted: 0.28%   
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: 0.04%   
Senator Mike Gravel: 0%
Note: These are percentages of delegates to the county convention, not individual votes.

According to the WaPo's Chris Cillizza: "Despite the support of the Culinary Workers [for Obama], it was Clinton who dominated the nine Strip casinos -- winning Bellagio and Paris among others. Obama won only Caesars. Turnout on the Strip was far lower than predicted in early estimates."

2:14 PM: CNN projects Hillary Clinton as winner with 59% reporting:

	Clinton	2,981	50%	0	59% reporting
	Obama	2,648	45%	0
	Edwards	269	5%	0
	Uncommitted	13	0%	0
	Kucinich	3	0%	0
	Richardson	0	0%	0

MSNBC also calls Clinton the winner, showing 50% of results in.
***********
I wonder which campaign is behind this robocalling against Obama? Comment on DailyKos: Robocall trashes "Barack Hussein Obama"

The Obama campaign has released a recording (mp3) it says came from a Nevadan's answering machine of an anonymous robocall that criticizes Obama for taking money from special interests while repeating, four times, his rarely used middle name: "Hussein."

"I'm calling with some important information about Barack Hussein Obama," the call begins, before saying that  "Barack Hussein Obama says he doesn't take money from Washington lobbyists or special interest groups but the record is clear that he does."

After mentioning his full name once more, the call concludes:

"You just can't take a chance on Barack Hussein Obama."

Listen to the recording of it on Obama website
**********
Earlier posting:

I can't get into the official results page of today's Nevada Dem Caucus because the site reportedly crashed from heavy traffic, but CNN has frequently updated results here. The MSNBC version is here.

CNN screen capture at 2:10 PM:

	Clinton	2,681	52%	0	51% reporting
	Obama	2,312	44%	0
	Edwards	196	4%	0
	Uncommitted	10	0%	0
	Kucinich	3	0%	0
	Richardson	0	0%	0

According to today's entrance poll it sure looks good for Hillary Clinton, but nobody really knows how predictive such polling will be in a state that's never had a caucus before. Hard to know how voters will act within the rather odd and public framework of an Iowa-like caucus (rather than the state's normal primary process). At any rate, Hillary wins for initial choice in almost every entrance poll category except voters under age 44, Washoe County, Independents and African-Americans, where Obama trumps her.

(Updated) ACTION ALERT HB9-Domestic Partnership Act: Monday Hearing, Call Legislators

UPDATE 1/21/08: Please use this tool provided by EQNM, which makes it easy to contact the legislators who are members of the House Judiciary Committee to urge their support of HB 9.

From EQNM:
After House Bill 9 received a do pass in House Consumer and Public Affairs by a vote of 4-3, we're hearing from the Roundhouse that the opposition has ignited, and they are placing hundreds of calls into every office insisting legislators vote NO on “gay marriage.” A majority of these calls are coming from out of state and Southern New Mexico. We are still encouraged by the strong showing of support for Domestic Partnership in our state, and encourage you to keep contacting your legislators and urge them to support New Mexico Families and pass HB9.

Take Five Minutes to Take Action

Step 1: Look up your Legislators by clicking HERE

Step 2: Check to see how they vote HERE

Step 3: Call the Round House Operator at (505) 986-4200 and ask for your Representative’s Office and urge them to support HB9 this year.

Step 4: Call the Round House Operator at (505) 986-4200 and ask for your Senator’s Office and urge them to support HB9 this year.

HB9 in House Judiciary Committee Monday: HJC is expected to hear the bill on Monday the 21^st at 1:00 PM in Room 309. It is our expectation that the opposition will try to outnumber us again. The Judiciary Committee could be equally close so it is extremely important that every person who can be there attend.

We need supporters to gather early in the committee room (which will be larger this time). Anyone who attended yesterday’s hearing can attest to a massive crowd. It is important that we arrive before the opposition, so we can be seen and heard by the committee members. Anyone wishing to testify should contact Equality New Mexico at 505.224.2766.

If you are interested in volunteering contact chris@eqnm.com.

To see our previous coverage of the 2008 NM Legislative Session, visit our archive.

Patricia Madrid Elected as DNC Platform Co-Chair

Former NM Attorney General Patricia Madrid has been elected by Democratic National Committee leaders to serve as one of three national co-chairs of the national party's 186-member platform committee. The committee is charged with drafting and recommending the party's proposed platform. Madrid will share her duties with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and former president and chief executive of Discovery Communications, Judith McHale.

"I'm very honored. It's a very prestigious position, and an important one for the convention," said Madrid.

Madrid was nominated for the post by DNC Chair Howard Dean.

"For Gov. Dean, this nomination was very important, because this is a convention for the entire Rocky Mountain West," said Democratic National Convention Committee spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth. "In her role on the platform committee, (Madrid) will ensure issues important to the West are well-represented at the convention."

The committee's leaders will will travel around the country to get input from Democrats on what should be included in the 2008 party platform, which will be voted on at the Dem convention that takes place August 25-28 this year in Denver. Madrid said she will ask her co-chairs to include a stop in New Mexico to gather recommendations. "If I have any say about it, the answer will be yes," she said.

Sunday Morning: "Eye on New Mexico" Ethics Debate

Tune in this Sunday, January 20, at 10 AM on KOB-TV 4 to the local current events show "Eye on New Mexico" to see Common Cause New Mexico's executive director Steven Robert Allen discuss the crucial ethics reforms being considered during this year's legislative session. In an occasionally heated debate with political blogger Mario Burgos and co-hosts Dennis Domrzalski and Nicole Brady, Allen argued strongly for the need to pass bills to create:

1. voluntary public campaign financing for statewide executive offices such as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and treasurer;
2. campaign contribution limits (New Mexico is one of only a handful of states with no such limits); and
3. an independent ethics commission to investigate complaints against public officials.

These bills are the major recommendations of the 2007 Ethics Reform Task Force, a bipartisan group charged with designing new ethics policies in the wake of a series of governmental corruption scandals and allegations in New Mexico.

If you can't watch the program live, you can download or subscribe to podcasts of all "Eye on New Mexico" shows at their website. To stay current on the ethics and campaign reform issue, visit the website of Common Cause New Mexico. Our previous posts on the 2008 NM Legislative Session can be found in our archive.