As shareholders gathered last month for the annual meeting of the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), the state's biggest utility, hundreds of citizens rallied outside PNM's headquarters in Albuquerque to protest the utility's continuing heavy reliance on fossil fuels and its plan to raise rates for homeowners and small businesses in order to pay for a coal plant expansion in northwestern New Mexico.
Residents living in the shadow of the San Juan Generation Station, small-business owners, and solar industry workers were among those calling attention to PNM's plan to take on a greater share of the aging, heavily polluting power plant, pictured below.
"We live 2-3 miles from the San Juan coal plant," said Anna Tyler, below, a mother and resident of Waterflow, which is overwhelmingly Navajo. "It's hard for me, my children, and our neighbors to breathe, living in the toxic shadow of PNM's coal plant." The San Juan plant is located less than three miles from the border of the Navajo Nation.
Activists at the "Rally for Ratepayer Justice" also protested the company's proposal to hike residential utility rates and institute a steep monthly penalty on citizens who install rooftop solar. They cited a recent report revealing skyrocketing profits and executive pay at PNM, while residential electricity rates have more than doubled since 2008, with only 7 percent of the increased revenue going toward investments in renewable energy.
"New Mexico is the sunniest state in the country, yet we get less than 3 percent of our electricity from the sun," said Sanders Moore, below, director of Environment New Mexico. "We need to move forward with solar energy, and we urge PNM to lead the way with solar and wind energy."
Sierra Club Rio Grande (New Mexico) Chapter director Camilla Feibelman, below, said that as a ratepayer, she's concerned that PNM is putting profit before its responsibility to customers. "PNM is failing to see the renewable future, and by failing to plan for this transition, they put workers at risk of losing their jobs, nearby residents at risk of pollution-related health problems, and our climate at risk from the impacts of global warming."
The cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and Bernalillo and Santa Fe Counties, representing more than 80 percent of PNM's ratepayers, all oppose the utility's plan to expand its ownership of the coal power generated at the San Juan plant at heavy ratepayer expense and risk, and its failure to conduct a fair assessment of renewable energy alternatives.
In May, PNM filed non-binding contracts with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission that would lock the utility into burning coal at the San Juan plant for the foreseeable future. As public support for the San Juan plant and its coal continues to plummet, PNM is seeking to fill the ownership void left by other companies extricating themselves from the plant, leaving PNM as the perpetual owner of last resort.
Support for continued burning of coal at the San Juan plant has fallen as admissions by PNM have revealed serious financial risks for the future of the plant, including uncertainty as to where the plant will get its coal after 2017. Earlier this year, the city of Farmington, where the plant is located, announced that it would not acquire an increased state in the plant due to reliability concerns and the huge costs that would be passed on to the community.
Other New Mexico stakeholders have also pulled away from an agreement that would continue PNM's continued use of coal at the plant, citing the overall uncertainty about San Juan's operations. Compounding public skepticism was PNM's recent announcement that due to an accounting error, the total bill for their plan to increase the utility's reliance on coal and other expensive fuels has jumped by over $1 billion, and those costs would likely be passed on to ratepayers.
On May 27, the Public Regulation Commission voted to allow PNM more time to finalize agreements in spite of the utility's previous inability to secure new contracts and the failure of its current proposals to address the growing costs and risks of its plan to double down on coal at San Juan.
"All the time in the world won't change the fact that PNM's plan to continue burning coal at the San Juan plant is risky, expensive, and unreliable for families and communities across our state," said Nellis Kennedy-Howard, a New Mexico-based organizer with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign.
"New Mexico families and communities, especially in the Four Corners region where the plant is located, deserve clear and decisive action from our Public Regulation Commission to stand up for economic security, job creation, and a healthier future for our state by rejecting PNM's misguided plan and demanding a long-term investment in sustainable, affordable clean energy like wind and solar."
TAKE ACTION: Tell PNM to retire coal at the San Juan Generating Station and invest in clean energy.
