Entries in Santa Fe (7)
Santa Fe to Increase Use of Coal and Nuclear Power
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 11:52AM 
The
City of Santa Fe is negotiating a deal that will increase the
consumption of coal and nuclear power for city operations by more than
70 percent over the next several years.
City officials have been
negotiating with PNM, the state’s largest investor-owned utility, to
provide power for a new drinking water system it is building. The new
water system will require 27-million kilowatt-hours per year.
Proposals
to get that energy from on-site generation were said to be unfeasible
by PNM in 2006, and creating a public power entity to provide energy
for the system was deemed “risky” by the engineer hired by the city to
study alternatives. The cost of the electricity needed to run the
city’s new water system cannot be determined, because PNM was recently
given the right to raise electricity rates as needed to cover its fuel
costs.
The video newscast containing this story is here.
Albuquerque Asks for Reconsideration of PNM Rate Case
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 08:28PM 
In local news here in New Mexico, the Albuquerque city council is joining other large consumers of electricity in asking the Public Regulation Commission to re-hear the case that allowed the state’s largest utility – Public Service Company of New Mexico – to raise its rates. The Commission has already heard the case twice: the first hearing took 15 months, but PNM complained that the $33 million dollar award it was given wasn’t enough. The commission re-opened the case and quickly tripled the award – one commissioner admitted that his support for tripling the award was based in part on a statement from Governor Bill Richardson saying that PNM needed the money. That would be OK if the Governor’s office had been a party to the case, but it wasn’t. It is unknown whether the request for rehearing will point out that mistake.
Santa Fe Group Creates Citizens' Energy Board
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 09:20PM 
A group of citizen’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico is petitioning the Board of County Commissioners to establish a Citizens’ Energy Board to guide the Commission on energy matters that come before it. The group began holding meetings in response to a plan by Houston-based Tecton Energy to begin drilling for oil and gas in the Galisteo Basin just south of Santa Fe.
The move by Tecton had already prompted formation of an activist group called “Drilling Santa Fe”, which has now formed an alliance with more than sixty other organizations to oppose drilling in the region. The Citizen’s Energy board is an outgrowth of that alliance that seeks to ensure that the concerns of citizens are well represented in the drilling debate, as well as in all energy matters effecting County residents, going forward.
Here Come the Mini-Nukes
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 07:26PM 
Nuclear power advocates are touting the benefits of miniature nuclear reactors that they say could allow an apartment building, a neighborhood, or a small city to generate its own electricity. Several designs are said to be nearing commercialization, including a 200 kilowatt unit developed by computer maker Toshiba, and a 25 megawatt unit that will be made by Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Hyperion Power Generation. Hyperion recently received an undisclosed amount of venture capital funding, and plans to build 4,000 of their miniature nuclear reactors, each capable of powering about 25,000 homes. Hyperion’s plan is to bury the units underground, then come back every five years to dig them up and replace them. No plans for disposing of the radioactive waste appear on the company’s website.
