The Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy is challenging a decision by New Mexico regulators that cleared the way for the partial closure of a coal-fired power plant in the northwest corner of the state. The group filed its appeal with the New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday. The Santa Fe-based group has been critical of Public Service Co. of New Mexico's plan for replacing the capacity that will be lost with the shuttering of two units at the San Juan Generating Station. The group claims PNM didn't prove it identified all the alternatives. The utility has argued that tapping a mix of coal, natural gas, nuclear and solar was the most cost-effective option for customers. After much debate and negotiation, the Public Regulation Commission approved the plan in December on a 4-1 vote.
As state legislators prepare for the 30-day session that starts on Tuesday, New Mexico lawmakers are confronting heightened concerns about violent crime, a weak economy and lackluster schools. The session—constitutionally limited to discussion of financial matters and issues the Governor decides to place on the agenda—opens against a potentially acrimonious political backdrop, with the Republican-controlled House and Democratic Senate both up for election in November. Republican Governor Susana Martinez has wide discretion over what bills are heard and has indicated a focus on law enforcement initiatives in response to a string of high-profile violent crimes over the last year. Those include the shooting deaths of two police officers and a four-year-old girl who was killed during a road-rage incident in Albuquerque. The governor and lawmakers largely agree on budget priorities that emphasize growth in Medicaid spending, increased costs of incarceration, teacher pay and economic development initiatives.
The New Mexico Game Commission has denied an appeal by the Turner Ladder Ranch for a permit to host Mexican wolves as part of a federal species recovery program. Thursday's unanimous decision caps a nearly eight-month saga in which the southwest New Mexico ranch owned by media mogul Ted Turner tried to convince the commission to reconsider its original denial in May. The permit had been in place 17 years. The Albuquerque Journal reports commission members invited the Turner Endangered Species Fund to reapply for a permit. The ranch near the Gila National Forest provided pen space for wolves being released into, or temporarily removed from, the wild by the federal government since the program to reintroduce the endangered Mexican wolf began in 1998.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it's reviewing New Mexico's plan to sue the federal government over a massive spill last year that contaminated rivers in three Western states. The agency declined to comment on New Mexico's notice to sue but said federal officials are working closely with the states to develop a long-term monitoring plan to evaluate potential environmental effects. The lawsuit would be a first and also would target the state of Colorado and the owners of the Gold King and Sunnyside Mines. An EPA cleanup crew accidentally unleashed millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater in August at the inactive Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. It fouled rivers in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico with contaminants including arsenic and lead.
An Albuquerque man has been sentenced to four years of probation and ordered to pay more than eight-thousand dollars’ in restitution for defrauding the federal food stamp program. Federal prosecutors say 47-year-old Wilfredo Lopez was sentenced Thursday. He was one of six defendants charged in a 32-count indictment in August 2014 with the unauthorized use of food stamp benefits from September 2009 to May 2010. One of the defendants worked as a family assistance analyst for the Income Support Division of the New Mexico Human Services Department, where he was responsible for determining applicants' eligibility for food stamps and benefit level. In May 2015, Lopez admitted to completing fraudulent applications for food stamp benefits in his name, another for himself in a pseudonym, and in the names of two other people.
The state has traded the old Dixon Apple Orchard and about nine-thousand acres of state trust land in northern New Mexico to Cochiti Pueblo in exchange for the site of a downtown Santa Fe hotel. The three-party deal announced Thursday gives the Garrett's Desert Inn site in downtown Santa Fe, which also includes the renowned Santa Fe Bite restaurant, to the State Land Office. The property is across the street from the Land Office's headquarters. The Catron family is selling the Garrett's site to Cochiti. The property being traded to the pueblo has sacred and ancestral village sites and hunting areas that Cochiti has been seeking for years. It is unclear what the Garrett's property will be used for in the future.
Santa Fe Weather: Partly sunny today with a high of 34 and a 20-percent chance for snow showers after noon. Tonight: Mostly cloudy with the low to 17 and a 40-percent chance for snow showers, mainly before midnight. Tomorrow: Mostly sunny, with a high near 33.