Democracy for New Mexico

NM Youth Organized is Hiring Two Coordinators

From New Mexico Youth Organized:
New Mexico Youth Organized (formerly known as the League of Young Voters NM), a community-based organization that works to identify and foster young leaders to realize and wield their power, is seeking to hire two coordinators. Applicants are being sought for an Outreach Coordinator position and a Youth Program Coordinator position for the 1Sky Campaign, a program that will develop and implement a campaign plan for state and local climate change initiatives. The deadline for applications is 5 PM, Saturday December 1, 2007. Click to see the job descriptions and other info about how to apply for these positions (PDFs):

• Outreach Coordinator
• 1Sky Youth Program Coordinator

Have questions? Call Keegan King, New Mexico Youth Organized, 505/385.8760.

Live Online Saturday: First Presidential Forum on Global Warming

From Grist:
Los Angeles, CA – For the first time in history, presidential candidates will take part in a forum focused on the issues of global warming and America’s energy future this Saturday, November 17th at the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles. The forum will be webcast live beginning at approximately 3:00 PM MST, at: https://www.grist.org/webcast.

Senators Hillary Clinton and John Edwards and Congressman Dennis Kucinich are confirmed to attend the presidential forum sponsored by Grist and PRI’s Living on Earth. The candidates will present their plans to address global warming and energy issues in a series of interviews with journalists and experts in the field.  All candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties have been invited.

"Grist.org is pleased to be a sponsor to the Presidential Forum and provide the candidates a platform to spell out for voters exactly what they intend to do halt global warming. Most Americans recognize the seriousness of the issue and are looking to our political leaders for solutions," said Chip Giller, President of Grist.org.

"We are very excited about providing voters with the chance to hear, directly from the candidates, how they will address global warming and America’s energy future," said Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.

The forum will be presented in partnership with the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Center for American Progress Action Fund, NRDC Action Fund, and the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will give the opening remarks.

"Californians know there is no time to waste in fighting climate change," said Susan Smartt, Executive Director of the California League of Conservation Voters. "We are extremely proud that California is hosting the first ever presidential forum on climate change and our energy future. We hope the nation will be taking notes."

"California has shown great leadership on this issue from emissions to alternative resources -- it's now time for national leadership to match our dedication and we're excited to hear the candidates outline their strategies," said Nina Hachigian, Director of the California Office of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

To watch the webcast live beginning at approximately 3:00 PM Mountain Time visit:

https://www.grist.org/webcast

Also see these interviews conducted by Grist.org and Outside magazine with participating candidates:

• Hillary Clinton
• John Edwards
• Dennis Kucinich

And here and interviews and factsheets on the positions of all the presidential candidates of both parties.

Next ABQ Sierra Club Program: Clean Cars

From Michal Mudd, Group Chair, Sierra Club Central New Mexico Group: Please join us to hear Lauren Ketcham of Environment New Mexico speak on "Bringing Clean Cars to New Mexico."

Next Sierra Club Program
Tuesday November 20, 7-9 PM
UNM Law School, Stanford & Tucker Blvd., Room 2405, ABQ

In 2000, transportation was responsible for more than one-quarter of the state's carbon dioxide emissions. If current trends continue, transportation-sector global warming emissions in NM could increase by more than 50 percent between 2000 and 2020. Trucks, cars and other vehicles in New Mexico also create smog and air pollution. Luckily, the technology exists to make cleaner cars that can help to reduce the state's global warming and air pollution emissions. But auto-makers and auto-dealers have been slow to embrace cleaner cars.

The Clean Cars Program sets strict standards for traditional air pollutants. The program would also reduce global warming, requiring that by 2016, new cars would emit 34 percent less global warming gases, while light-duty trucks would produce 25 percent less. Twelve states have already adopted these cleaner standards.

The state's Climate Change Advisory Group (CCAG) analyzed the Clean Cars Program and found it to be THE MOST cost-effective way to significantly reduce New Mexico's global warming emissions. Following the unanimous CCAG vote, Governor Richardson announced his support for the program and directed the New Mexico Environment Department to draft regulations for administrative adoption. Rule-making hearings for Clean Cars have been scheduled before the Environmental Improvement Board and the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board.

HOWEVER, auto dealerships in New Mexico, as well as some state legislators, are fighting the proposed regulations hard.  Environmental activists need to make  their voices heard as well.  Please come to our general meeting, and learn how we can help bring cleaner cars to New Mexico.

Editor's Note: Click for more info on the Clean Cars Program.

Tweeti Blancett to Speak in Santa Fe Monday

From Johnny Micou at DrillingSantaFe.org:
The New Mexico Environmental Law Center and Southwest Seminars will host a lecture with Tweeti Blancett in Santa Fe on Monday, November 12th at Hotel Santa Fe at 6:00 PM. She'll speak about "Rip Roaring Ranching and Fighting Oil and Gas." If you haven't seen her presentation, it's well worth it. Cost is $10 or $5 for Law Center members, and $45 for the series. Call 505-989-9022 for more info. The series benefits the Law Center, which is celebrating 20 years of victories for New Mexico's environment and communities.

About Tweeti:

• High Country News
• National Geographic
• OteroMesa.org
• Sierra Club
• Audubon Magazine
• SanJuanCitizens.org

Pass a Good Energy Bill and Get Us Into the End Zone!

Click to urge Congress to pass a powerful energy bill. (Click on image for larger version.)

The above ad was placed as a full page ad in the Santa Fe New Mexican as a sincere thank you and a direct appeal to Representative Udall to pass a good energy bill this fall -– an aggressive bill that will bring the nation’s fleet of cars and trucks to an average of 35 mpg and 15 percent of our electricity coming from renewable energy by 2020. It is an important time, a crucial time, because there is a powerful chance that special interests, lobbyists, and PACs will water-down or block this bill. I am working with a coalition to make sure the energy bill doesn’t get derailed. Please go to https://www.energybill2007.org and sign the petition to urge Congress to do the right thing.

cabraham@energybill2007.us

PRC Reelection Candidate Jason Marks: The Speech

Consumer watchdogs: Jason Marks & his canine sidekick Kiko campaigning at Focus Ink's progressive gathering last month.

As I reported previously, Dem Jason Marks kicked off his reelection campaign last week for the District 1 New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) seat. The event was well attended and Marks gave an excellent speech about his accomplishments so far and his goals for a second term. Since the response to the speech was so positive, I asked Marks for a text version so more people could learn what he had to say. Here it is (pdf). Excerpt:

The PRC has - under the right leadership - a key role to play in the challenge of our generation - the transition from fossil fuel dependence to an energy future that is based on clean and sustainable technologies.

Fossil fuels have been very good to our country, our world, and for New Mexico. Exploiting fossil fuel energy has made possible our modern standard of living. Here in New Mexico, oil and gas have been important sources of economic growth and development.

But today, continued reliance on fossil fuels presents more risks than opportunities. We’ve all experienced the doubling of gasoline costs, and we’ve seen natural gas for home heating, that used to be around $3 per 1000 BTUs, go past $14 with Hurricane Katrina and never go back, staying in a range of $6 to $10. Even coal prices have increased dramatically. Fossil fuel prices will continue to rise, and expose us to financial risks we don’t want to bear.

At the same time, fossil fuel use is the main driver for catastrophic environmental risk. Climate change is already occurring, and we are already seeing slightly warmer winters and slightly hotter summers. A respected climate scientist at UNM has projected that we will see 2 to 3 degree temperature increases over the next 20 years, no matter what we do now. And, if we do nothing, temperatures in our region will go up by 6 to 7 degrees by the end of the century.

Climate shift of that magnitude will decimate New Mexico’s agriculture, our outdoor recreation economy, our hunting, fishing, skiing. Our children and grandchildren won’t have the opportunity to enjoy the New Mexico that we love. Residents of coastal areas would have it even worse, losing their homes and livelihoods to rising sea levels.

Forty percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. are produced from electric generation, most of that from the burning of coal, like we do out in the Four-Corners. Commission Lujan and I have made public commitments that we will do everything possible to prevent New Mexico electric utilities from building new pulverized coal plants! (The proposed Desert Rock plant is directed at selling power outside of New Mexico, so it’s not in our jurisdiction.) We will look at advanced coal technology that sequesters carbon dioxide emissions, and we push the deployment of solar, wind, and other renewables.

... Most recently, the Commission adopted rules for the Renewable Portfolio Standard that I proposed which create diversity targets for solar energy and distributed generation. New Mexico’s solar resource has the potential to take over a large portion of our electricity needs over time, but we have to start developing it. The new rules require utilities to actually build large scale solar plants, instead of merely offering vague plans for the future. We believe that we can do this without big rate increases, and the rules establish rate impact caps at 2% for 2011.

These rules were controversial. We got strong support from scientists, engineers, environmental advocates, and ordinary citizens, but the utilities did not think it was our role to tell them what kind of plants to build.

Unfortunately the group that believes utility execs are best positioned to make decisions for the public would love to roll-back the progress we’ve made. That cannot be allowed to happen.

I hope you'll give the entire speech a read and then sign up to volunteer for or donate to the Jason Marks campaign. He's seeking petition signatures as well as small donations of "seed money" for what will be a publicly funded campaign down the line. I think Marks is a top notch and very ethical PRC member, with a sincere dedication to pushing for renewable energy development and the mitigation of greenhouse gas production in New Mexico. It's very important to get him reelected. The word is Repubs will be targeting this race and you know what that means -- a rollback of the new energy regulations and who knows what else if they succeed. Let's get active now and head them off at the pass.

Many voters are unclear about the critical and powerful role played by the PRC. Our 5 PRC commissioners are responsible for regulating and providing oversight of a myriad of industries. You can read about their responsibilities here. It's a complicated and often thankless job. We're lucky to have someone of Jason Marks' caliber on the commission. Let's keep it that way.

Click on photo for larger image. Photo credit: M.E. Broderick.

Guest Blog: Al Gore in Albuquerque

This is a guest blog by Linda in Santa Fe NM, who an organizer in the grassroots effort to draft Gore for president. As I'm sure you know, Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, in tandem with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It kicked the movement to urge him to run for president into overdrive.

October 3rd was the day of Rio Rancho's Al Gore Live Presentation with his slide show, "An Inconvenient Truth." Of couse this was a chance to learn important information about the climate crisis, but it also allowed us to express our support for Mr. Gore running to be our next President.

We arrived at the Santa Ana Star Center over an hour before the event was scheduled to start. Unfortunately the police said they were given orders that no signs be on the property. Given so many expected this to be "the place" to be, we had people working for many other candidates, Presidential and Senate, that were pushed to the sidelines as well. We stood on the sidewalk facing the entrance armed with buttons, fliers and displaying our banner. I don't know if Mr. Gore had a chance to see us, but the people sure did.

It was great to hear pretty much everyone saying they want a Gore presidency. Almost everyone we asked was thrilled to put on a Gore button. Of course we weren't getting many walking by us, since we weren't in front of the door, so I sent someone over with a bag of them to pass out in front of the entrance. He walked back to get more three times within minutes because they were gone instantly.

The people were very excited about Gore for President. The one person who displayed skepticism that he would run, and didn't want a button, came up to me after the presentation to say, "I changed my mind, can I still have a button?" Even people who were not part of the "official Draft Gore" movement were all on the same page and were doing their own individual parts. It was so exciting. I met a couple with their daughter coming up with signs and petitions to join the Kyoto Treaty. Another couple inside painted R U N down their shirts. Yet another couple in front of us were from Santa Fe too, and excited to hear there was a movement. Because the buttons we made have the website's address, www.algore.org on them, it will be easy for them to officially get involved.

After arriving at our seats and realizing there was an opportunity to hit up the folks sitting in the front of the stage where Mr. Gore would be speaking, I walked over to ask if anyone wanted buttons. If they weren't already wearing them (we saw them on the chests of people everywhere we looked), they asked for them. Then the folks sitting on the side realized I had buttons and they all started yelling out that they wanted some, and I started getting "we need five over here." I had to excuse myself to get more because I ran out of them. When I returned with more buttons, people asked if they could shake my hand to thank me for my work, and one man yelled out, "I love you."

Mr. Gore was absolutely incredible. He was so energetic, passionate, strong and funny. He opened up with some humor before giving the facts. He carefully alleviates the tension from the intense information he is sharing with a slight break of humor every once in a while. The information and facts he shares just roll off effortlessly, with intense passion being displayed when the news gets deep. The standing ovations he received when entering paled in comparison to what happened when he finished his presentation. I don't think any of us wanted to sit down.

The information Mr. Gore shared in his presentation was updated with current information. After thinking I had seen and heard everything before from the movie, It was disturbing to see and hear the latest news, including information highlighted for our state. Most troubling was hearing we are indeed running out of time because everything is happening faster than we thought. As he clearly stated, we are speeding up the warming at an alarming rate.

First we went from 100 years' time to act down to 50. Then a long-awaited study showed so much damage we went down to 34 years to act. Last month, new information came out saying the rate of warming was advancing so quickly to melt the arctic ice that we had only 23 years before the tipping point. Then there was last week's news that ice twice the size of England melted, then that ice the size of Florida disappeared. The day prior to his talk, Mr. Gore received word that our tipping point actually may be only seven years away. Seven years. I started to cry.

Mr. Gore said he believes we can still solve these problems, but we need to act with urgency. He is asking for citizen activism. Get involved. Go online and find out what you can do to help. He also made it clear that we must restore our democracy as we go forward. There is much work we can do.

The evening ended with Gore taking questions from the audience. At this point I figured if I got kicked out it would be worth it, so I took my draft Gore banner, opened it up and dropped it, hanging it from our legs. I know it was seen, because a friend sitting on the opposite side of the Center noticed it, and people in their seats pointed to the banner and gave it a "thumbs up."  I can only hope that Mr. Gore caught a glimpse of it during a pause in the questions because, after all, it is time. Time for a COOL change with Mr. Gore.

The final questions of the evening were from a young girl and boy, ages 12 and 13. They both wanted to know if this would be solved and by whom. They asked, "do I and my children have a chance?" That pretty much said it all as to what's on the mind of their generation. The little girl added, "good luck in winning the Nobel Peace Prize." Mr. Gore bowed his head with that and then responded that it is our 
responsibility to solve this for them and their children. And he hopes they will ask the question of how we managed to solve this. I do too. While leaving the very emotion-filled presentation, I had a chance to find that little girl and give her a button. I hope it will help give her some added hope that we will solve this crisis for her and those like her all over the world. Thank you Al Gore.

This is a guest blog by Linda in Santa Fe NM. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express themselves and 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 corner of the page.

Say No To Dirty Pit Waste in New Mexico

From Earthworks:
This October, New Mexico will begin revising the state's rules governing oil and gas pits. Oil and gas pits contain a range of toxic, carcinogenic and hazardous materials. Take action to strengthen these rules! (NOTE: Please take action only if you're from New Mexico.)

Toxic pits for you, no questions asked (or answered). The oil and gas industry is pushing rules that would:

• permit on-site, in-place burial of drilling waste;
• not require notification of surface owners - let alone their permission;
• prohibit testing of pit contents before burial; and
• not require post-burial monitoring of any kind.

Burying toxic pit waste threatens our precious groundwater, the people who live in proximity to these dumps, and private property. Don't let the oil and gas industry leave thousands of unmonitored and dirty mini-waste dumps across the state!

What You Can Do
Take action! Tell Governor Bill Richardson, and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Joanna Prukop these rules should protect land owners and the environment. Tell them the rules should prohibit on-site pit burial of toxic waste.

Thank you for your support,
Jennifer Goldman, Oil & Gas Accountability Project
Alan Septoff, EARTHWORKS

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Go to the action page.
• Read the sample letter and modify if you can. Personalized letter text and/or subject headers will increase the impact your letter has on your Representative.
• On the action page, clicking "Send My Message" will send your letter via email to Gov. Richardson.

Lastest Developments on Desert Rock Power Plant: EIS Problems and Fluor Corp.

Recent news about Desert Rock, the controversial coal-fired power plant proposed on Navajo Nation land near Shiprock, NM, centers on U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) concerns about the project's Draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), as well as the award of the initial program management contract to Fluor Corp., a major player implicated in the Iraq and Katrina recovery contract scandals.

Problems with Draft Environmental Impact Statement
The U.S. EPA is questioning the sufficiency and accuracy of the draft environmental impact statement on the plant, which would be built by Houston-based Global Sithe in cooperation with the Navajo Nation. According to an article in today's Albuqurque Journal:

The EPA questions some of the numbers and projections in a Bureau of Indian Affairs draft environmental impact statement, which was released this summer and was the focus of 10 public hearings across the Four Corners and in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

... In a 12-page analysis of problems with the environmental impact assessment, the EPA notes "unresolved concerns" with the BIA's analysis of groundwater contamination and air quality effects of the construction and operation of the 1,500-megawatt plant.

Representatives of Diné C.A.R.E., the San Juan Citizens Alliance and the Energy Minerals Law Center issued a joint press release dated September 12, 2007 in response to the EPA's comments. Excerpt:

"We commend EPA's recognition that Desert Rock presents unresolved environmental justice issues. The two existing power plants and three coal mines in the region have created a legacy of disproportionate impacts to the Diné people," said Dailan Long of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (C.A.R.E.), "Like its predecessors, Desert Rock will result in the permanent removal and relocation of Navajo Nation tribal members including elders many of whom only speak Navajo, do not have phones, electricity or running water, and use these areas for ceremonial, customary and medicinal purposes. The BIA and industry have to date failed to treat local Diné people humanely."

"The EPA rightfully notes that the DEIS for Desert Rock fails to evaluate the impacts of continued dumping of coal combustion wastes in Navajo Mine with no valid conclusion concerning the legacy of dumping practices in the region." said Brad Bartlett, attorney with the Energy Minerals Law Center. "Tens of millions of tons of hazardous coal combustion waste have already been dumped in the existing Navajo Mine from the existing Four Corners Power Plant. Desert Rock would expand the Navajo Mine by 17,000 acres and increase the unmitigated dumping of these wastes ten fold."

"The EPA comments on the Desert Rock DEIS reinforce unresolved environmental and economic problems for Sithe Global's proposal," said Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance. "The notion that Desert Rock is a clean coal-fired power plant has been clearly refuted. It is now time for the BIA and the Navajo Nation to move beyond the ill-advised, conceptual Desert Rock project to economic development for the Navajo Nation that truly accounts for economic and environmental progress and success."

EPA's comments include the unevaluated impacts to groundwater from continued and expanded Coal Combustion Byproducts (otherwise known as coal combustion waste) disposal in Navajo Mine (the proposed source of coal for Desert Rock); the failure of BIA to require aquifer testing and impact assessment; the lack of a groundwater monitoring program for the project; deficient conclusions concerning groundwater; insufficient particulate matter emission calculations for air quality impacts; improper conclusions concerning mercury content of coal proposed to be burned for Desert Rock; and failure to include a public health discussion that includes the latest scientific information about air pollution and public health, including impacts from ozone.

In addition, the EPA documented several deficient Environmental Justice issues including lack of local citizen access to power and no proposed mitigation in the DEIS; the failure to identify information concerning potential relocation of minority and low income populations as a result of Desert Rock; and the failure to properly evaluate the potential impacts of Desert Rock on groundwater and agriculture.

"Disaster Profiteer" Fluor Corp. to Manage Development
Fluor Corp., a generous contributor to Republican candidates, was selected to provide initial comprehensive program management services in the development of Desert Rock starting in 2008. Fluor was also the recipient of $100 million in no-bid contracts from FEMA for services in the Katrina recovery effort. FEMA's entire contracting process is being audited by the Department of Homeland Security after complaints from Congressional Democrats and others about cronyism and serious mismanagement.

According to a September 2005 article by the Institute of Southern Studies, the corporation has also been heavily involved in questionable and costly Iraq recovery projects and other boondoggles:

A California-based engineering firm, Fluor has been one of the government's biggest go-to contractors for overseas engineering work, accumulating contracts worth $8.5 billion (source: The Center for Public Integrity) from 1990 to 2002. Iraq was no exception, where they pointed to their long history in the region (mostly Saudi Arabia) to land over $1.6 billion in contacts for rebuilding Iraq. According to an August 2004 report in the Los Angeles Times, they also had the right political connections:

Suzanne H. Woolsey is a trustee of a little-known arms consulting group that had access to senior Pentagon leaders directing the Iraq war. In January, she joined the board of Fluor Corp. Soon afterward, Fluor and a joint-venture partner won about $1.6 billion in reconstruction contracts in Iraq.

Woolsey's husband, the former CIA director, R. James Woolsey, a leading advocate for the war, also serves as a government policy adviser. He, too, works for a company with war-related interests.

The Woolseys' overlapping affiliations are part of a pattern in Washington, in which individuals play key roles in organizations advising officials on major policy issues, whileinvolving themselves with businesses in related fields.

What's their work record? Like many of the politically-connected contractors, Fluor keeps landing contracts despite a long rap sheep of scandal and abuse, including repeated claims of overcharging and gouging taxpayers. Among the most recent include charges of falsely claiming millions of dollars in costs on DoD contracts in 2001 (the company settled for $8.5 million), and in 2002 being sued for $24 million for "numerous design and construction failures" at the Refugio Mine in northern Chile.

And their work state-side? In 1994, Fluor paid a $3.2 million fine for "submitting heavily padded repair bills for work on Navy bases after hurricane Hugo."

In addition,

Fluor manages the government's Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, one of the most heavily polluted sites in North America. Since Fluor took over the site in the mid-1990s, workers and local citizens have charged the company with cost cutting measures that have created potential environmental and health concerns. The company responded by firing whistleblowers and shutting down the Hanford Joint Council, a public forum established eight years ago to air employee and local government concerns over plant safety. (Ref: Gov. Accountability Project)

As reported in the New York Times, Fluor Corp. as an entity within the Fluor comglomerate, was incorporated in Delaware on September 11, 2000 after splitting with their coal production unit, which is now called Massey Energy. Massey is the nation's fourth largest coal producer according to CorpWatch.

State of NM Seeks Consultation with Navajo Nation
In late July 2007, Gov. Bill Richardson issued a statement expressing his serious concerns about the Desert Rock Plant due to the significant amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants the plant would emit. In a letter dated August 20, 2007 to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., Richardson requested "formal government-to-government consultation between the State of New Mexico and the Navajo Nation" to discuss the concerns and explore options for addressing them. Ron Curry, Secretary of the NM Environment Department, was designated as the State's lead person in the consultation. No word yet on a response from President Shirley.

Still Time to Submit Comments
Gov. Richardson also requested an extension of the comment period on the project's draft environmental impact statement and others have complained about the short time allowed for public input. The comment period, in fact, has been extended and now ends on October 9, 2007. You can electronically submit comments on the project to www.desertrockenergy.com. There is a 40,000 character limit. It's recommended that you also mail a copy of your comments to:

Harrilene Yazzie, NEPA Coordinator
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Navajo Regional Office
P.O. Box 1060, Gallup, New Mexico 87305
505-863-8287

To learn more about the Desert Rock Power Plant controversy and stay current on developments, visit the desert-rock-blog operated by Doodah Desert Rock activists, the San Juan Citizens Alliance website and the website of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Also check out the indepth commentary in this previous post, which includes links to our past Desert Rock coverage.

Al Gore at Santa Ana Star Center

Al Gore and his presentation on "An Inconvenient Truth" will be coming to Rio Rancho's Santa Ana Star Center on October 3, 2007 at 7:30 PM. Click for info and tix. By the way, Gore is writing a sequel to his book An Inconvenient Truth entitled The Path to Survival, scheduled for publication on Earth Day next April. According to the publisher, Rodale Books, Gore will spell out a blueprint for the changes that individuals and governments need to make to avoid catastrophic climate change.