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New Mexico adopts money-saving building codes

New Mexico adopts money-saving building codes

The New Mexico Construction Industries Commission voted Wednesday to adopt the most recent international building energy codes, requiring builders to design and construct new buildings with improved performance. Specifically, the state adopted the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code, with additional requirements that new buildings include infrastructure to support charging for electric vehicles in some parking spaces.

Get active in the 2024 NM legislative session

Get active in the 2024 NM legislative session

The 2024 New Mexico legislative session is upon us, and as ever, our air, climate, land, water, wildlife, families and communities require our action. You have been an important grassroots environmental lobbyist and we so appreciate your participation, work and support. Please take some time to fill out the survey to indicate where and how you’d like to participate during the session and the lead up to it.

ETA credits lighten PNM bills for 2024

ETA credits lighten PNM bills for 2024

If you’re a PNM customer, check the line item on your bill titled “San Juan ETA Settlement Credit” for a credit of around $9. The credits come as compensation for PNM’s delay in issuing Energy Transition bonds to refinance debt customers had been paying for San Juan Generating Station. Instead of issuing the low-interest bonds when the coal plant closed, PNM continued to collect its 10% rate of return on the debt from customers. The Public Regulation Commission in 2022 ordered PNM to credit customers to reflect the savings the bonds would have brought, but PNM appealed and won a stay at the state Supreme Court.

Prescribed burns can meet or defeat forest goals

Prescribed burns can meet or defeat forest goals

The devastation left after the northern wildfires last year has changed ways of thinking about what can burn and under what conditions. Scientists at the National Soil Moisture Monitoring Network Conference determined that fire managers must evaluate more factors, particularly the correlation between soil moisture and plant moisture to adequately predict fire risk and conditions of advanced drought. Ideal prescribed burn “windows” will be fewer.