Governor, Take Your Time on Power-Export Scheme

Governor, Take Your Time on Power-Export Scheme

Dec 10 - The Santa Fe New Mexican

Delighted as we are to see New Mexico power companies seeking alternatives to coal-fired steam generation, we're wary of Gov. Bill Richardson's proposal that we export the energy we will produce here.

The governor this week proposed creation of a "quasi-government" authority, which would help finance construction of new power lines in the Southwest. As he sees it, "it doesn't matter how much wind energy we have in New Mexico if we can't send it to markets that need it -- California, Nevada and Arizona in particular."

Once again, New Mexicans are hearing that our state should be the energy colony for our fast-growing neighbors. Certainly wind generation is better than siphoning off the Ro Grande or tapping the Zuni Salt Lake to supply steam power to Phoenix -- schemes exposed by The New Mexican's Ben Neary, and put on hold by their proponents.

But how 'bout letting those "wind farms" out on the llanos serve our state first? And, for that matter, how 'bout keeping generation closer to the consumer, through minigenerators capable of powering neighborhoods and small communities, with heating and cooling as a byproduct?

Pollution and atmospheric warming aren't the only downsides to those coal-fired generators of the Four Corners area; the huge power lines running from them waste vast amounts of electricity on the way to the consumer. Barring fresh transmission technology by an industry not exactly famous for it, lines from Eastern New Mexico to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Reno would be similarly inefficient.

Joanna Prukop, Richardson's secretary of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources, notes that, when our state's two major wind farms are in full operation, they'll be able to generate just over 400 megawatts -- enough electricity for 320,000 homes.

Great! Let those homes be New Mexicans' homes -- and let New Mexicans' electricity bills go down once the power companies amortize their laudable investments in renewable energy.

Only then should our state consider issuing industrial- development bonds to finance service to customers in other states. And even then we should proceed with the greatest of caution: What if we the taxpayers back the power companies' play, then our out-of- state customers wise up to "co-generation" and other close-to-home energy sources rendering New Mexico electricity superfluous or too expensive?

The governor's idea certainly is worth considering: Wind and solar generation, with scientific improvement at the source and along the line, might well be the power of the future. In time, our state might have an electricity surplus well worth exporting, if only this didn't require building power-wasting, ugly transmission lines across our pristine landscape.

For now, though, the Legislature, the Public Regulation Commission and the New Mexico Finance Authority should take their time committing their fellow New Mexicans to public support for exported power.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .