Tell Your Representative 90 days for $70 million in Savings is A Good Deal

Senate Bill 489 has passed the Senate and is now heading to the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, this bill does not contain a provision that will allow the City of Farmington the 90 days it needs to vet a proposal that would allow a third party to buy San Juan Generating Station. Under this proposal, the new owner would install carbon capture and sequestration equipment that would remove 90% of CO2 emissions making the plants carbon emissions less than those of competing natural gas generation.

If this proposal is brought to fruition, it would be a win-win-win for New Mexico:

1. PNM customers would not be charged $70 million through rates to fund severance and job retraining for employees in San Juan County who would lose their jobs otherwise.
2. The environment would be protected with what will be one of the lowest emission clean-coal plants in the world.  The plant will be a model for other coal fired generating stations across the world that can’t afford to switch to natural gas combined with renewables.
3. Fifteen hundred high paying jobs and property taxes would be maintained.  This would mean that employees of the San Juan Generating Station, the Westmoreland Coal Mine and related jobs would continue for years and decades to come.  Also, the Central Consolidated School District would not face a potentially disastrous transition caused by a dramatically reduced tax base if San Juan Generating Station is closed early as proposed by PNM.

To get the benefits of keeping San Juan Generating Station open, only 90 days is needed to vet the plan.

Call or email your Senator and tell them you believe that Senate Bill 489 should be amended to grant a 90 day period to vet the plan to keep San Juan Generating Station open and benefitting New Mexico.

If you know your Representative’s name, you can look up their phone number and email address by clicking on their name and picture here: Find my Representative’s phone number and email address.

If you don’t know your Representative’s name, you can find them by searching here and then click on your Representative’s picture when it is displayed:  Find my Representative by entering your address.