Tipping point

We are rapidly approaching a tipping point where climate change, already disastrous, will become a runaway catastrophe. We need to do everything possible to avoid that result. The Four Corners Power Plant is New Mexico’s largest source of climate pollution. It needs to be closed ASAP. The Public Service Company of New Mexico owns a portion of Four Corners that it wants to sell. A Public Regulation Corporation hearing officer recommended approval of PNM’s sale plan.

PNM’s plan would allow Four Corners continue to pump out heat-trapping gases until at least 2027 and probably longer. PNM’s plan would saddle customers with $75 million that PNM would need to pay to get someone to purchase Four Corners. Customers should not be paying for something that provides them no benefit and allows climate pollution to continue. The PRC should reject the hearing officer’s recommendation and find that PNM’s investment in Four Corners was imprudent.

Richard Barish Albuquerque

From The Santa Fe New Mexican:

Dec. 13, 1921: During a fight yesterday afternoon at about 5 o’clock at Pojoaque, Juan Jose Lujan of Santa Fe, it is charged, shot and probably fatally injured Manuel Garcia of Pojoaque. Three other bullets found resting places in a team of horses owned by a spectator named Calles. The bullet which struck Garcia entered the back over the right hip and imbedded itself in the chest and lung tissue.

Dec. 13, 1946: Los Alamos May Acquire Use of Bruns Facilities Dec. 13, 1971: Governor and Mrs. Bruce King entertained nearly 100 handicapped children at a Christmas party at the mansion Sunday. Dec. 13, 1996: Former Gov. Bruce King and his family saved $15,300 on their property taxes this year by letting their neighbor’s cows wander through their 800-acre parcel west of Santa Fe.

The King family owes only $23.63 in property taxes on the $2.8 million parcel, which they have designated for future residential development.