Letters to the Editor (March 10)

Who is really to blame?

Editor:

Referring to the two Albuquerque Journal articles “Agencies scramble to avoid summer blackouts,” and “PRC weighs how to fight looming power blackouts,” it confirmed my suspicions that this state is so screwed up beyond all recognition.

Between PNM, the Public Regulation Commission, Hector Balderas and MLG, they sound like a bunch of second-graders blaming each other for something they’re all guilty of.

PNM says the PRC didn’t approve new resources to replace power from Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station;  PNM and Balderas blame the PRC;  PRC blames PNM for not submitting proposals sooner;  PNM blames PRC for rejecting a “peaking” natural gas plant to backup wind and solar; unable to obtain imported power from other states. Adding her intelligence to the already intelligent mix, MLG says “this is a PNM problem.”

Here’s three of my favorite excuses for not being able to provide power when needed: 1)  The global supply chain causing no access to solar panels in Asian countries.  2) The coronavirus pandemic; 3) and of course, let’s not forget the all-important climate change.

But let’s cut to the chase and lay the blame where it really belongs. None of this would be happening if MLG’s Energy Transition Act had not been passed in 2019. Neither of these articles, written by … Kevin Robinson-Avila, mentioned one word about the onerous ETA.

The PRC and PNM have been operating with their hands tied behind their backs having to abide by all the restrictive rules of the ETA. However, don’t feel too sorry for PNM as they went “all in” for the ETA.

Green governors and legislators obviously never heard of “The Iron Law of Electricity” (Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute) which says “People, businesses, and countries will do whatever they have to do to get the electricity they need” and “when forced to choose between dirty electricity and no electricity, people will choose dirty electricity every time.”

If we want to keep the lights on, the best thing that could happen would be for the Legislature to repeal the very harmful Energy Transition Act and implement Nuclear power generation for the cleanest, most reliable source of power.

Donna Crawford

Los Lunas

 

Political discourse

Editor:

The Nextdoor website is intended as a place for people to exchange information, post items for sale and make requests for assistance of one type or another.

Increasingly, it has also become a space where too many people use it to vent their political opinions, which is not a permissible use of the website. Responsible users have the option to report such abuse (look for the three dots in the upper right of each post after the name of the person posting). Once filed, a complaint is then supposed to be reviewed by a monitor. Too often, the monitoring is poor or delayed for too long before a post is removed, if at all.

It is not uncommon to see a post opened spouting political views, resulting in every Tom, Dick and Harry coming out of the woodwork to burden the rest of us with their unsought political opinions.

In frustration, some people who have used the site simply drop out due to posts not following the guidelines.

Let us hope that the owners of the Nextdoor website and the local monitors exercise more diligence to remove unwanted political posturing from the site. There are lots of other places to vent — Facebook quickly comes to mind. Go there and vent to people who really want to hear your opinions. Responsible users of Nextdoor don’t.

James Rickey

Los Lunas

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