A milestone. We’ve been working together since before 2008 to close the San Juan Generating Station, one of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants.
We’d like to take a moment of pause in this harried world to recognize our climb and reach of this plateau. (Of course, there’s so much to do… but) yesterday we filed our monster SJGS abandonment brief [PDF] and, just days before...
we filed our brief in opposition to Governor Lujan Grisham and Speaker Brian Egolf’s Petition [PDF] to force the PRC to implement the Energy Transition Act without regard to due process and Constitutional safeguards (at the NM Supreme Court).
As we look at where we’ve come from, and where we are going, we want to first recognize and give gratitude for all the people who’ve been with us on this journey. We were literally just looking at pictures from the first day of protest in Phase I of the abandonment case on January 5, 2015 at the PRC (*see above and below) and looking at friends who we still lock arms with, Indigenous allies who still provide guidance and clarity, and previous, corrupt PRC Commissioners who (thank goodness) are no longer around.
We were younger then and now we are wiser.
Activist Author, Rebecca Solnit published a “Letter to a Young Climate Activist on the First Day of the New Decade” last week. In it, she writes:
“We need to understand the worst-case scenarios and the suffering and loss happening now, so we know what we’re trying to prevent. But we need to imagine the best case scenarios, so we can reach for them too. And we need to imagine our own power in the present to choose the one over the other. And then we need to act.
I believe that resistance, that standing on principle, that engaging with the trouble, is good for the soul, a way to connect, a way to be powerful. And get results.”
As you know we believe in “activist DNA” to which Rebecca alludes: the DNA strand of resisting what’s wrong, and the intertwined DNA strand of exposing the vision of what’s possible. We do this with you, standing on principle against PNM and the industry causing our climate crisis and despoiling our environment, and imagining energy democracy – local wealth creation through clean and affordable energy, via community solar and our local energy choice legislation.
Truth and engagement is our weapon. YES, our hearts and minds and movement’s power are big enough to do both. We will keep on stretching, reaching, resisting, creating beautiful trouble, taking the path toward energy democracy and environmental justice.
Back to New Energy Economy’s news for a minute: A long awaited decision by the PRC was issued yesterday in response to our Joint Petition to Investigate PNM’s planned purchase of nuclear at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (“PVNGS”).
While the PRC did not initiate a full “investigation” as we had initially requested it did require PNM and PRC staff to respond to our Petition (other entities responded as well), and the PRC issued a strongly worded Order: “PNM’s decision with respect to the PVNGS capacity will be subject to intense scrutiny and must be fully supported by an adequate analysis of alternatives and cost-effectiveness. … PNM is on notice of its obligation to perform continuing and timely updates of any analyses it may perform that provide the basis for any decision it may reach. The Commission specifically places PNM on notice that the Commission is not bound by the remedies it has employed beforehand and reserves the right to identify and impose any appropriate remedies for any additional imprudent actions by PNM, up to and including total disallowance.”
Simply put, if PNM’s nuclear can’t compete against renewable alternatives (which it can’t) don’t expect to get cost recovery from ratepayers.
As Solnit insists, we are working to win community relevant results and are so honored to be on this path with you.
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