« Health Security Act ACTION | Main | Tonight on Espejos, KUNM 89.9 at 8 PM: Human Rights Vigil & the NHCC Foundation »
Monday, June 18, 2007
Tuesday: Join the Call to Free NM Government from Corporate Grip
From Ben Luce, Break the Grip!:
Tired of the domination of New Mexico by big corporations like PNM, Qwest, Oil & Gas, Media monopolies, and others, but feeling helpless to do anything about it?
Break the Grip! is initiating a campaign to end the pervasive grip of corporations on New Mexico State Government. For more information on the origins of this campaign, see the Open Letter to Governor Bill Richardson. More information will be given at BTG!'s Campaign Initiation Gathering (supporters are encouraged to attend) and press conference:
- When: Tuesday, June 19th, High Noon
- Where: East Entrance of the Santa Fe Roundhouse
- Directions: Northwest corner of Paseo de Peralta and Old Santa Fe Trail. Come early - parking close by can be hard to find. Parking may be available in the parking lots off the northeast corner of this intersection. There is paid parking near the St. Francis Cathedral downtown, about a 10 minute walk from the Roundhouse.
Supporters are encouraged to attend. (Detractors are encouraged to enjoy lunch instead at the Mission Cafe, located on East DeVargas Street near the Roundhouse.) Come prepared to sing! See the Lyrics to our theme song, "Let's Break Their Grip!"
An expanded version of the Break the Grip! website will be uploaded on June 19th and will contain history, calls for reform, calls to action, and more. Break the Grip! is a citizen's campaign that is not affiliated with any political party, election drive, nonprofit or for-profit corporation or other interest.
Editor's Note: Ben Luce is the former Chair and Policy Director of the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy (CCAE). Mother Media has more on Luce's decision to leave that post and start Break the Grip!.
June 18, 2007 at 10:19 AM in Economy, Populism, Energy, Ethics & Campaign Reform, Local Politics | Permalink
Comments
This should be exciting. From what I know, Ben Luce is one of the very good guys. With every passing day it seems like politicians and insiders at all levels are abandoning the people's agenda while pretending to support it. Meanwhile they are becoming mere whipping boys (and girls) for corporate interests.
Posted by: | Jun 18, 2007 5:23:15 PM
There's so much pretend environmentalism and so many fake green energy intiatives going on. Seems like all politicians are now calling themselves "green" even the Sprawl King himself Mayor Marty Chavez. Buzzwords don't make it real. If you look under the surface of many of these political schemes, they're hiding a whole bunch of business as usual.
Posted by: LS | Jun 19, 2007 9:59:13 AM
I'm tired of the domination of New Mexico, and the United States by big corporations. Ben Luce has it exactly right, we need transparency at all levels of government not back room deals. These deals dilute renewable content laws in the same way that they gave oil companies making record profits a 60 billion dollar tax credit, and cause this government and its citizens to bleed fiscally, environmentally, and most tragically - physically, in places like Iraq.
Why is it not called bribery?
Because the people who write the laws get to say what bribery is.
Luce for president.
Posted by: Andrew Martin | Jun 21, 2007 9:06:02 AM
I'm with Andrew. It takes courage to speak truth to power and Luce is doing just that. Our other environmental leaders need to wake up, be real and support Luce's new group. Everybody can help as the same kind of dilution of effective law to please corporate interests is happening in every sector, from health care to energy to ethics.
More and more people are seeing behind the masks of politicians and witnessing how they are essentially lying to the public while they're inserting all kinds of loopholes into legislation to protect monied, powerful interests.
We need a strong grassroots movement that calls a spade a spade to counteract this corporate creep. Let's support Luce!
Posted by: > | Jun 21, 2007 10:12:26 AM
Clean Energy Network Members:
The 2007 Legislative Session has ended with FANTASTIC results!
The Clean Energy Age has been launched!
At least THIRTEEN major clean energy bills passed, plus one and possibly two memorials,
offering a wide range of new incentives and programs for solar, wind, biomass power, biofuels, energy efficiency,
and low-income energy policies. Many of these policies represent years of work by various advocates. Some
were new policies worked out in the heat of the session. Many proposals also failed (see the web site for
a complete list of everything proposed).
- Major new initiatives that will now be launched include green building, large-scale solar, and biofuels.
- Utility efficiency programs will be enhanced
- Distributed solar will be greatly enhanced.
- Major development of wind and solar for export will be initiated.
- Clean Energy Manufacturing will be strongly encouraged.
- Mercury emission control is enhanced.
Although some things for efficiency and low-income issues also passed, it would have been nice to see an efficient appliance incentive and other efficiency policies, and also some new policies for low-income. These and other policies that did not pass will continue to be targets for future sessions.
And, the Desert Rock and uranium mining bills are dead!
Congratulations and thanks to the many, many dedicated people and groups who made all of these things happen, including:
- Our dedicated sponsors and allies in the Legislature;
- Governor Richardson and his staff: LITTLE OF THIS COULD HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT THE STRONG LEADERSHIP OF GOVERNOR RICHARDSON FOR CLEAN ENERGY IN NEW MEXICO.
- All the people in the Network who contacted their representatives; YOU!
- All the advocates in the CCAE and CCAE member groups:
- The folks from all our allies:
- Dooda Desert Rock,
- Dine Cares,
- Sage Council,
- Conservation Voters New Mexico,
- San Juan Citizens Alliance,
- Sierra Club,
- New Energy Economy,
- Interfaith Alliance for Environmental Stewardship,
- Climate Change Action Project,
- League of Young Voters,
- Mesa Del Sol
- Other folks at the Roundhouse who kicked in support along way,
and others left off this quick listing.
The new policies are described below (keep in mind that not everything has been signed by the Governor yet).
See the web site for bill text: https://www.nmccae.org/Legislature_07/index.htm.
Sincerely,
Ben Luce
Posted by: Gregory Green | Jun 23, 2007 1:12:39 PM
1/13/06
The program is one of the first in the country to be based on the actual performance of PV systems, rather than just offering incentives for their installation. Ben Luce, chair of New Mexico's Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy (CCAE) said PNM's program "leads the way for incentives that are based on actual production of solar energy so that high quality systems are encouraged." PNM is also putting together a proposal for a solar buyback program for its customers with PV systems over 10 kW, PNM spokesman Jeff Buell told Prospects.
3/5/07
For Immediate Release:
3/5/2007
Contact:
Jeanne Bassett, 505-254-4819
Anna Aurilio, 202-546-9707 x315
Rob Sargent, 617-747-4317
New Mexico
New Mexico Energy Standard Renewed, Doubled
Legislation to double New Mexico's renewable energy was signed by Governor Richardson today. The Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, SB418, was sponsored by Senator Michael Sanchez (D-Belen).
SB418 will increase New Mexico’s current renewable energy standard from 10% by 2011 to 20% by the year 2020 and the bill also sets the first in New Mexico renewable energy standard for all rural electric cooperatives. Under this legislation, all electric cooperatives would be required to get 10% of their electricity from renewables by 2020. The bill was supported by renewable energy advocates, conservationists, farmers, and utility companies.
"Today, Governor Richardson signs into law a bill that will become a cornerstone for New Mexico’s New Energy Economy,” said Lauren Ketcham, Environmental Advocate with Environment New Mexico. “Doubling our use of renewable energy to 20% by 2020 will protect our air, cut global warming pollution, and increase our energy security.”
New Mexico’s current investment in renewable energy has been an enormous success. Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) is expected to meet the state’s current RPS of 10% several years ahead of schedule.
“Not only will this double the renewable energy developed it will also play a critical role in launching large scale solar power generation in the United States,” said Ben Luce, Policy Director of the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy, CCAE. “This will provide for the first time a serious alternative to coal and nuclear power.”
The Governor also signed the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority, HB188, by Jose Campos (D-Santa Rosa). HB188 requires that lines contracted by the Authority have at least 30% of their energy come from renewable energy sources.
“Although some states have similar transmission planning entities our Renewable Energy Transmission Authority makes New Mexico the first state to have a strong requirement for renewable energy,” said Luce. “This will require the development of huge amounts of renewable energy above the requirement of the new RPS.”
Investments in wind and other renewable energy technologies help generate tremendous new economic development opportunities in rural and agricultural areas of the country, enabling farmers, ranchers and landowners to grow a reliable new "cash crop" that doesn't need water.
“Support for clean energy continues to grow," said Ketcham. "New Mexican’s realize that renewable energy won’t just help protect our environment but will be a driver for New Mexico’s economic future."
-30-
Journal
https://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/562320nm05-13-07.htm
May. 8th, 2007
Friday, August 27, 2004
Regardless of Size, Solar Make Sense
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Energy Board Nears Reality
By Tania Soussan
Posted by: Gergory Green | Jun 23, 2007 1:14:17 PM
Gregory: It's against copyright law to post entire articles instead of excerpts and links. I'd appreciate it if you would repost using that format as I will be deleting your comments that include full article texts.
Also, it takes up much room in the comments.
Please repost accordingly.
Posted by: | Jun 23, 2007 3:11:20 PM
FYI: Gregory Green is the lobbyist for the NM Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy the organization that Ben Luce resigned from.
Posted by: a green | Jun 24, 2007 10:05:43 AM
Gregory Green was the lobbyist last session but has now been appointed by Richardson to the Environmental Improvement Board.
Posted by: 4 Corners | Jun 25, 2007 1:16:04 PM
I am responding to the last post that implies something untrue about Gregory Green. The facts are that Gregory was appointed to the Environmental Improvement Board over four years ago. He has been the lobbyist for CCAE for the past 3 or more years.
Posted by: Sally Rodgers | Jun 25, 2007 6:04:11 PM
The point is that if you're appointed by the governor to an important post you can hardly be expected to be critical of him or his actions. Its well known in NM that Richardson punishes people who do.
Posted by: a green | Jun 25, 2007 7:32:02 PM
I am not sure who the last post is from they don't give their name but I would ask them to please look at my record on the EIB before saying things like that
Gregory Green
Posted by: Gregory Grenn | Jun 25, 2007 8:33:32 PM
Gregory Green, the lobbyist with my former group, and now a Richardson Appointee, has been posting old email broadcasts I sent out after the 2007 New Mexico session, attempting to discredit my recent call for repeal of several of the energy bills passed in that session.
Please not, however, that my call comes after New Mexico's major utility (PNM) put a major nuclear industry player in charge of new generation, and during the same week that Governor Bill Richardson essentially capitulated to nuclear. This made the Richardson Administration's all-out attempt to gut the renewable energy provisions of the Transmission Authority, which took place behind the scenes (but which is visible in the first version of the bill introduced), and also the long delay until the next increase in the renewable energy standard (2015), much more serious. Overall, my trust in the intent of both the Administration and PNM was destroyed, and the renewables law has no real teeth as a hedge until 2015).
Secondly, when writing those broadcasts, I had not yet decided to make the full truth of what happened behind the scenes public. I was still in the service of my old organization, and still bound at that time to keep what actually happened private. In retrospect, I apologize for that, and I now feel that we should have been wiling to speak truth to power, instead of trying to maintain our access to Richardson via politically connected people like Mr. Green.
Insider access is probably fine if your politician is really ethical and dedicated to the things you hope he or she it. But otherwise its a false path that only provides a false sense of empowerment to an advocate, and leads inevitably to dissappointment.
Posted by: | Jul 3, 2007 12:51:54 AM
