What if we just said no to a new natural gas pipeline?

Irecently wrote a too-mild letter to the editor, suggesting that the planned natural gas line from Dixon to Peñasco-Picuris is a huge mistake. A total of $14.5 million is about to be spent on climate-warming, methane-spewing fossil fuels — when we all know that we need to be abandoning gas and oil and switching to electricity as quickly as possible.

Dan Pritchard of Renewable Taos (a better numbers guy than I, by far) has calculated the cost of the pipeline at $36,000 per household. By my reckoning, here’s what that same $36,000 could buy:

• Weatherizing and insulation upgrades for every home

• Enough solar panels to power the entire valley

• Battery storage to provide essential power through the night

• Electric water heaters, heat pump systems and electric induction ranges to replace the current propane units

• Home charging stations for electric vehicles

And here are the associated benefits to each household:

• Utility bills will go down.

• Jobs will be created for weatherization, insulating and appliance replacements

• The impact of power outages will be reduced

• Both indoor and outdoor air quality will be healthier

• The need for overhead transmission lines will be reduced

• The pipeline and hundreds of roadside meters will be avoided

• The costs of running piping from the meters to homes will be avoided

• The costs of converting to natural gas appliances will also be avoided

Peñasco and Picuris are missing out on the opportunity to leverage $14.5 million into a communitywide project that delivers incredible bang for the buck, creates lots of jobs and catapults everyone smack-dab into the clean-energy future. Instead, they’ll be getting a very messy pipeline with only short-term benefits — and they’ll still be faced with electrification costs a few years from now.

I have no idea if the pipeline can be refused and the funding reallocated to clean, renewable energy. That should be possible — and wouldn’t it be amazing if the people could muster the grit to pressure their representatives to turn this thing around?

But I do know this: We (and I include myself) can’t let this happen again. Our elected representatives must stop catering to the interests of the fossil fuel lobby. They must use every available taxpayer dollar to lead us into a cleanenergy future, and if they won’t do that, we need to elect someone who will.

Taos has so much going for it: We have an electric cooperative that is a leader in solar energy and is committed to helping lowincome families make the transition from fossil fuels to electricity. We have highly-qualified solar installers and technicians. We have no shortage of builders with green building skills.

And we have, most obviously, a gorgeous landscape and an amazing set of cultural traditions that are calling us to step up and take care of all this beauty before it’s too late. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is in every way — economically, environmentally and culturally — our bridge into the future. Let’s build it now.