A cherished landscape gained a measure of new protection this month when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed an order creating a 10-mile buffer zone around Chaco Culture National Historical Park that precludes future oil and gas leasing. The decision culminates a yearslong campaign initiated by Puebloan tribes, local Navajo communities, archaeologists, and conservation advocates.
Whitewater boating season offers a metaphor for our local energy supply. We’re in the calm pool edging closer and closer to the lip of the rapid, before plunging into frothy waves below. That’s the position La Plata Electric Association finds itself in, for years waiting to learn the cost to terminate its onerous electric supply contract with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. But this summer, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to finally decide the formula for calculating the payment to exit the contract.
The Four Corners region is on the cusp of a rapid transformation from coal to renewable energy. The massive coal-fired San Juan Generating Station near Farmington is slated for demolition later this spring, accompanied by the simultaneous construction of large…
we need YOU to call or email our county commissioners and tell them to not defer to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) in Denver, but rather protect our public health by taking local leadership in setting setback requirements for oil and gas wells.
The Four Corners took a significant step toward a coal-free future as Unit 1 of the San Juan Generating Station closed forever on June 30. The event occurred without fanfare, and represents the inexorable decline of mining and burning coal…
The choice between continued coal power or equitable transition at San Juan Generating Station There is nothing enchanting about Enchant Energy’s proposal to continue burning dirty coal and emitting pollutants in the Four Corners long into the future. Enchant proposes…
Last week, La Plata Electric Association inched closer to gaining the basic information it has long desired to evaluate whether it makes sense to stay with Tri-State Generation and Transmission as its wholesale electricity supplier or jump ship to potentially…
One of the noticeable, and remarkable, changes in recent years has been the dramatic improvement in visibility and air pollution in the Four Corners. Longer-term residents routinely comment on the increased clarity and the sharper vistas of distant ranges like…
Today the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) approved the abandonment of San Juan Generating Station, a ruling long in the works after months of painful legal back-and-forth. This decision paves the way for Public Service Company of New Mexico…
New Mexico and the Four Corners is experiencing a transition that, far from being unique, is mirrored in coal regions across the nation. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the market reality is that coal is being left behind by…
New Mexico recently passed a landmark energy transition bill known as the Energy Transition Act (ETA). The bill was groundbreaking not just for setting an aggressive renewable portfolio standard, but also for creating funding to ensure a just transition for…
For months the City of Farmington has been scheming with a small two-person outfit to keep San Juan Generating Station (SJGS) open past the 2022 closure date agreed upon by all other owners. Their plan is to install expensive Carbon…
In just a few weeks, Public Service Co. of New Mexico will initiate the process to officially retire the San Juan Generating Station, the 1,600-megawatt, coal-fired behemoth outside Farmington that once burned coal day and night to generate electricity. It’s…
The Four Corners finds itself in an unprecedented economic landscape and elected officials are choosing to expend valuable time, resources and money pointing fingers and aggressively combatting the entities working to make sure our communities don’t get left behind. The…
Spring is in the air, and with it comes potentially big changes for our electric power supply. Leadership changes abound at both our local rural electric cooperative, La Plata Electric Association, and its wholesale electric supplier, Tri-State Generating and Transmission….
New Mexico just passed one of the most progressive energy transition bills in the country! The Energy Transition Act (ETA), which just passed the house and now heads to the Governor’s desk, paves the way for a just transition to…
San Juan Citizens Alliance is actively working to move New Mexico forward to a sustainable energy economy. We believe an important step towards this desired future, especially for us in Northwestern New Mexico, is the passage of Senate Bill 489,…
The Energy Transition Act will reduce electricity costs for New Mexicans, leverage affordable clean energy, and provide economic relief to the Four Corners. Today, a coalition of New Mexico labor, community, and environmental organizations celebrated the passage by the…
Woot woot! A new Governor in New Mexico along with a host of bold, progressive, new State House representatives, looking to the future and creating opportunities. We’re hopeful we can make big strides in clean energy, a just transition for…
After almost 6 years spent outside of Farmington and San Juan County, it is great to be back in the community I grew up in and will always call home. It is refreshing to experience the kindness I remember being…
We who live in these parts sometimes call it the Four Corners, other times the San Juan Basin or even the Colorado Plateau. It’s reflective of the geographic flexibility of our home region, one that water and air easily transcends….
Photo: Wildearth Guardians, Flickr The comedian Lily Tomlin used to have a favorite shtick where she played Ernestine, the snorting, smirking phone operator. She would end her bit with the line, “We don’t care, we don’t have to, we’re the…
The era of coal is over. We must demand a just transition for impacted families and communities now. APS, having profited billions from the hardworking families and communities of northwestern New Mexico, has a responsibility to help fund that transition….
Our beloved Animas River has taken a shellacking the past few years, the most recent insults a combination of record low flows and wildfire induced mudslides. The Animas might be the blaring alarm bell for our society’s failure to act…
Photo: Wikipedia Commons By the time Scott Pruitt resigned as the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, he was the poster child for bungling personal entitlement. As Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa put it, Pruitt was the swampiest of the Washington,…
Photo: Ecoflight Northwestern New Mexico is at a crossroads. Like many communities throughout history, the foundation of our economy is based on a soon-to-be outdated industry. We can choose to become victims of change and progress or we can choose…
This year’s La Plata Electric Association board election is a pivotal referendum on the future of our electric supply. Are co-op members happy with the status quo, being joined at the hip for the next 32 years to Tri-State Generation…
Photo: Ted Wood Storey Group In December and January, intense negotiations were ongoing over a Public Service Company of New Mexico-backed bill relating to the closure of the San Juan Generating Station, the coal-fired power plant near Farmington. This piece…
It’s a challenging time for La Plata Electric Association. The electric utility world is undergoing a classic technology disruption, where rapid advances threaten to upend decades-old business models. LPEA is locked into a contract for the next 30 years with…
Regulations around energy production can be complicated, but it’s also really important to our region’s ability to pursue local renewable energy through our rural cooperatives. This week, we joined forces with our partners at Local First to file a motion to…
A major tenet of our work over the past decade has been that coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners region have exerted an enormous toll on human public health and natural systems (air, water, land). It is now apparent…
Photo: EcoFlight While other coal plants in the region are announcing early closures, due in large part to the low cost of renewables, the 55-year-old Four Corners Power Plant was issued a whopping 25-year permit extension in 2015. As you may remember,…
Photo: Anna Peterson Last week, we took three big steps toward a local, renewable energy future. We unveiled the extent of grassroots support in Durango, gained the City of Durango as an enthusiastic ally, and finally felt a breeze…
Photo courtesy of Thomas Roberts By Guest Blogger: Donna Stewart “With this bellows I will pump the flames of this fire which looks like from Hell, and witches will flee, straddling their brooms…and when this beverage goes down our throats, we…
Photo By: Lt. Zachary West As we stand transfixed by the enormously powerful hurricanes churning across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, one can’t help but think about our place in the climate-change continuum. Here in the San Juan Basin,…
A few weeks ago, we sent forth our champion with bated breath and hopeful expectations to plead our case before Tri-State, to please allow us to generate more electricity locally here at home in La Plata Electric Association’s service area….
The San Juan Generating Station and San Juan Mine coal complex (SJGS/SJM) is New Mexico’s single largest polluter. While the facilities provide electricity to 500,000 customers, and employ several hundred of our community members, they do so at a great…
“It’s all about the economics,” the expert said. “Technologies have improved to make other forms of energy less expensive than coal.” One might figure sure, that’s some tree-hugging environmentalist arguing for solar and wind energy. But in fact, that’s the…
By Guest Blogger: Donna Stewart Part I in a four part series on Renewable Energy. See Part II,Solar Power: Who Came Up With That?? and Part III, Check’n New Solar System(s) “A dam about to break.” That’s how Chris Riley, President…
Last night we hosted an event called Cookies for Calls: No Pruitt for EPA. We handed out homemade cookies to those of you who stopped by and made a call to your Senators. Many of you had never called an…
Need some levity? This is for you. When you’re ready to take on reality again, check out some information we put together about the Four Corners Power Plant. Warning: It’s not that funny.
As the world transforms in response to technological innovation and evolving political preferences, chaos claws at order, building the future with every rip and tear. It’s a painful thing, this process. Inevitable, yes, but still painful. In April, San Juan…
Imagine an unlikely scenario with me. Donald Trump, the wildly successful, great, terrific business icon turned even terrific-er presidential candidate, finds himself unsure how to negotiate a business transaction. Who might he call for advice? After years of watching a…
The Four Corners Power Plant (FCPP) and Navajo Mine complex is a massive source of pollution. It can’t be permitted to operate until 2041. Learn More. Amid last year’s crumbling coal economy, and despite promises to address climate change, the Obama Administration approved a…
Last week Peabody Coal joined Arch, Alpha, Patriot, and other US companies in bankruptcy. This progression of bankruptcies is raising a myriad of concerns about the financial viability of coal, the future costs of clean up, the dangers of self-bonding,…
It’s election time! No, not that one. There’s one here locally from which the presidential race could learn some lessons. Imagine if the national election were more like that of our local La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) Board of Directors: 2 months…
“This path must be paved with common sense policy changes that address our near-term climate challenges, aid coal-dependent communities to help them emerge from transition more sustainable and prosperous, defend taxpayers and the broader American interest, and protect our legacy of public lands.” In…
It’s 3 weeks into January and here at the Alliance we’re finally taking a moment to clear the papers off our desks, breathe, and reflect on the past year. We started 2015 knowing there were thousands of people in the region…
Photo Credit: EcoFlight This is a huge moment. Today we joined together with Diné CARE and other regional and national conservation groups to seek justice for the communities and species threatened by the the Four Corners Power Plant and Navajo…
This holiday season I’d like to propose a corollary to Durango’s well-loved buy local movement: give local. December is a month awash in fundraising requests, and let’s face it: being on the receiving end can get tiresome. But let’s face…
In his Tuesday column, “The Republicans’ Incompetence Caucus,” conservative New York Times writer David Brooks excoriated the more radical elements of the Republican Party. Sordid intra-party politics playing out in broad daylight, now that’s a writer’s ticket. And yet, I’ll…
The EPA just updated Bush-era ozone levels. While we commend strengthening of the standard, it is disappointing to see the agency apparently cave to industry lobbying efforts by establishing the weakest limit recommended by their scientific advisory panel. In the Four Corners,…
We’ve been getting a lot of compliments on our new and improved newsletter. The format is a little (OK, a lot) different than the last time we put one together (some two years ago…) and you’ll be proud to leave it on…
The problem with free market solutions to environmental problems is really quite simple: The free market does not exist. Let’s take a peek at the energy sector to see just how non-existent this free market is. In May, the International…
Let’s talk about the biggest little coal mine in La Plata County you’ve never heard of. Six miles southwest of Hesperus sits the King Coal II mine. Operated by GCC Energy, a subsidiary of Mexico-based Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua, the…
A do-over. That’s what we and our partners asked the Department of Interior (DOI) for when they released their Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Four Corners Power Plant and Navajo Mine Energy Project last year. Did we get…
This post is the third in a four-part series on the King Coal Mine in Hesperus written by guest contributor Lauren Pope. Read Part I, and Part 2: The Impacts. Ridiculous Revival At a time when world changing technological advances – hybrid cars,…
We live in exciting times. Just how exciting? Check this out. What was a fairly sedate affair historically – the La Plata Electric Association annual board of director’s election – has transformed into a proxy vote for the community’s vision…
It is not often enough that we get to celebrate wins in my line work, so today let’s pause to do exactly that. A few weeks ago, San Juan Citizens Alliance and our partners won a hard-fought legal case against…
This post is the second in a four-part series on the King Coal Mine in Hesperus written by guest contributor Lauren Pope. For Part I, click here. Disruption Grupo Cemento de Chihahua’s (GCC) proposed expansion of the King Coal…
Over the past few weeks, one thing has become clear here in New Mexico: coal is a bad investment. Today, Public Service of New Mexico is charging ahead with a plan to continue burning coal at the nearby San Juan…
Photo Credit: EcoFlight Busted. Again. A federal judge just denied a plan by the Office of Surface and Mining (OSM) to expand the Navajo Mine, which feeds the Four Corners Power Plant, based on the fact that the environmental analysis…
To see the actual IMF document referenced below, click here. It’s jarring to see your credibility attacked in a letter to the editor – a bit less so, though, after you realize the writer’s argument is baseless. In my bi-weekly…
This is the first in a series of 4 blogs on the King Coal II Mine by guest contributor, Lauren Pope. A New Era for King Coal About three hundred feet underneath the piñon-topped mesa west of Durango in the Hay…
Ever wonder what the Alliance has been up to? Or how we put your donations to work? If so, this blog is for you. As we head into 2015, we thought we’d take a moment to recap some of our…
There has been a lot of press in the last week about a newly discovered methane hot-spot over the Four Corners. No surprise here at the Alliance. We’ve been fighting coal mines and working to highlight the problems with methane…
Stop the press! Something wild just happened. I, Dan Olson, found common cause with the tea party. Coming from your local environmental group, this declaration deserves some unpacking. Two Saturdays ago, I attended a “public meeting” at the Durango Community…
We couldn’t help it…. here’s another video from This is Reality ripping on “ clean coal. ” Too funny….!
Have you ever seen a monster? I have. A few weeks ago. He was an odd monster. He didn’t hide in the dark spots fancied by most monster-types. No, this monster stood out in the open under the glaring mid-day…
This hilarious 30 second video clip nails the false claims of clean coal. Right on.
