New Mexico

Joined by leading scholars and advocates, Johns discusses the Navajo Nation’s historical relationship to coal and their current efforts to achieve a just transition.

As three coal plants and mines wind down, a plan for what comes next.

While proponents cite local coal job retention, others are skeptical of high costs and impacts on nearby people and environments.

As the state moves to 100% renewable energy, communities that relied on coal facilities for jobs and economic growth are pushing for equity in emerging clean energy opportunities.

The latest plant retirement announcements—in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Wisconsin—highlight how coal continues to lose its historical stature as a baseload source of electricity.

As the ongoing and “inevitable” decline of coal proceeds, the former lieutenant governor of North Dakota calls for foresight and planning, citing post-coal initiatives in Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington.

“San Juan County would be far better served investing in the new energy economy,” write the authors, arguing instead for investment in “increasingly low-cost technologies that are practical and saleable.”

“The simple reality is that the proposed carbon capture retrofit at the San Juan Generating Station is not financially viable,” said a co-author of a study dismantling the promoter’s pitch.

In announcing its acceleration of coal-plant closures in Colorado and New Mexico, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association said it would keep the affected 600 workers and their communities in mind.

A proposal to turn the San Juan Generating Station into a profitable coal-fired power generation model may be technically feasible, but the economics of the project still don’t pencil out.

The politics are tangled and the particulars unique. But the debate here distills a bigger question as to what regional coalfield economies can do in the face of fast-unfolding change.

"Although not many in this room love the idea of the closure, the decision by the utility has been made and with that comes many challenges and, hopefully, opportunities.”

A deal geared mainly to see that an outside company is approved for a $5.8 million research grant has the city of Farmington taking on credit-rating and reputational risk

Tri-State Generation Transmission, which has 43 co-op members in four states and remains disproportionately reliant on coal, declined an overture from a company seeking to bring cheaper, greener energy to the region.

In a “David and Goliath battle,” Kit Carson co-op is winning its fight to modernize its business model in a way that supports local job creation and local economic development.

“An unlikely coalition of backers”—unions, environmentalists and the state’s biggest public utility—helped enact a bill that pushes New Mexico into a new energy era.

A new law requiring a 50 percent commitment to renewables will prove a boon “as skilled workers are needed to manufacture, install and operate new clean energy technologies.”

A proposal that would allow for bonds to be issued for closure costs at the San Juan Generating Station advanced as the state contemplates shifting to 50 percent renewables by 2050. 

A proposal by a “mysterious hedge fund” to save a Farmington, N.M., coal-fired power plant from closure has been met with skepticism. The fund has no experience in the sector. 

The governor, the utility industry, and environmentalists support a bill to “give a softer landing to San Juan County, both for the workers and the loss of tax revenue," one advocate said.

The Public Service Commission has given the biggest utility in New Mexico the green light to close the state’s largest coal-fired power plant and to liquidate its stake in another.

The Navajo Nation will lose almost $300 million on its July acquisition of part of an aging and increasingly uncompetitive coal-fired power plant in New Mexico, concludes a new study.

A consortium of 17 companies have pledge $100 million in public-service funding for communities affected by the shale-energy boom. Funds are earmarked for schools, healthcare, roads, housing and business development.

Momentum is growing around modernizing tribal renewable-energy policies on the Navajo Nation of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, according to a new report. The shift is being driven in part by the large-scale deployment of solar generation throughout the Southwest, where Navajo lands remain something of an island in a growing regional sea of utility-scale solar installations.

San Juan County, N.M., stands to lose 10 percent of its total property tax revenues when the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station closes in 2022, and the plant’s retirement will cost the area 1,500 jobs and $105 million in lost wages. State legislators are now drafting bills to bring relief funding to the region as local officials seek help. “We're looking to lose coal," the mayor of Farmington recently said.

With the U.S. coal industry “in frank decline,” the well-being of communities in the four corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah is at risk as three coal-fired plants in the region becoming increasingly uncompetitive. Activists, educators and elected officials have responded by pressing for more initiatives meant to diversify the region’s economy, including a pilot scholarship project at Navajo Technical University. “This is a unique program that specifically helps communities affected by the decline in the coal industry,” said the university’s president. “It’s making many opportunities available for Navajo students, but there’s still tremendous need out there.”

Lawmakers in New Mexico are grappling with how to manage the imminent closure of a coal-fired power plant in San Juan County in a way that will protect the local tax base. The state is also exploring job-retraining programs in the area alongside policies that would encourage investment in local renewable energy and natural gas projects. The San Juan Generating Station produces millions of dollars in tax revenues for the county, and its owner, Public Service Company of New Mexico, is seeking a state deal that would support a transition to other forms of more economical power generation.

The Public Service Company of New Mexico, the biggest utility in the state, is doing right by its customers in planning to close the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station by 2020 and replace it with renewable resources, gas-fired generation and power-storage technology. The transition promises to provide “important and beneficial economic development opportunities for our state and its rural communities,” writes the author, who notes that the wind and solar industries have already invested $4.4 billion locally.

New Mexico ranked first nationally for windfarm construction last year, according to a new study that sees the state’s rural communities benefitting especially from an influx of investment that is expected to continue. The wind industry has invested $3 billion in New Mexico and created about 3,000 jobs: “Employment runs the full gamut, from front-end field workers who assess wind resources and work with local communities to construction jobs and long-term employment for operations and maintenance folks. “Wind technicians make up one of the two fastest-growing jobs nationwide alongside solar installers.”

An analysis of Colorado-based Westmoreland Coal shows that it is in deep financial peril, a situation that may affect communities in Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wyoming as the company’s customer base dries up. “The cost inherent in coal-fired power are moving (utilities) away from coal," says the study’s author.

Energy Transition Openings Now in the Four-Corners Region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah

An op-ed writer in New Mexico makes the case against utility monopoly control of fast-growing solar energy resources: “The promise of the advanced energy economy goes beyond a cleaner environment and more sustainable power—it’s also about building a more diversified, resilient and competitive economy.”

Lawmakers are being pressed to increase New Mexico’s renewable energy generation mandate to 50 percent of total electricity generation in the state, from 20 percent. The state’s biggest utility, Public Service Company of New Mexico, is already planning to be out of the coal business by 2031.