Independent study says Prop K is economically feasible, would create jobs and have little to no ratepayer impact

This week, researchers published a report looking at the technical and economic feasibility of Proposition K, the El Paso ballot initiative that would reduce climate pollution in the city and includes goals for increasing renewable energy on El Pasoans’ electricity grid.

Idea Smiths LLC engineers focused on analyzing the energy marketplace and conducting energy-system modeling. The researchers conducted their own analysis as well as reviewed other studies and reports commissioned by the City of El Paso, El Paso Electric and University of Texas, directly addressing some of the deceptive claims made by the report commissioned by the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. Read the full report at www.ideasmiths.net.

Researchers note ample existing transmission connectivity on El Paso’s grid. They carefully analyzed the language in the proposed climate ordinance, finding that it “only applies to energy used by the municipal city government” and does NOT have a region-wide mandate, nor does it require changes to existing appliances or vehicles.

The researchers note that El Paso Electric committed to investors to generate 80% of electricity carbon-free by 2035 and 100% by 2045. The researchers assessed the feasibility of El Paso Electric’s commitment as well as the other provisions in the El Paso Climate Ordinance being voted on through May 6.

The engineers also analyzed the feasibility study commissioned by the El Paso City Council, which found that energy goals could be self-funded through a 15-year contract with an Energy Service Company. The feasibility study aligned well with the energy-potential modeling reviewed by the researchers. The group included El Paso Electric’s public models from 2021. IdeaSmiths concludes that the models “indicate that it is very possible to power a growing El Paso economy while vastly reducing emissions.”

Much of El Paso Electric’s current electricity comes from gas — 1,500 MW, or about 45% of EPE’s electricity generated in 2020. The researchers note “eight of the fifteen natural gas units online in 2021 were set to retire prior to the 2045 deadline [in Prop K]… Furthermore, El Paso Electric estimates that they can achieve 80% carbon-free electricity with almost no change to rates and 100% carbon-free electricity with a 1.2- to 5.8-cent increase on rates in 2040.”

The researchers found that decarbonization results in a net job increase that includes and goes beyond the energy sector and that a report issued by opponents of Prop K was based on “flawed” and “irrational” numbers.

“The proposed climate ordinance has the potential to bring real change to our community,” said Antoinette Reyes, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter organizer. “Gas companies are working overtime to spread disinformation and spending big money opposing local climate solutions when those funds could be better spent improving the quality of life for El Pasoans through investments in cleaner air and doing more to protect our limited water resources.”

Additional press materials:

• El Paso Electric’s identical models can be viewed in the company’s 2021 sustainability report and 2021 four year Integrated Resource Plan
• University of Texas at Austin’s statewide study on net zero by 2050
• El Paso Matters coverage of IdeaSmiths report

Sierra Club El Paso Group statement on Castner Range designation as National Monument

On Tuesday, President Biden announced the designation of Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada and Castner Range in Texas as the country’s newest national monuments. The designation provides permanent protection for roughly 514,000 acres of Nevada and Texas landscapes.

Castner Range  located in Fort Bliss, will encompass about 6,600 acres that contain prehistoric habitations and agriculture dating back more than 10,000 years and rare and endangered wildlife. In the past, Castner Range served as a training and testing site for the U.S. Army during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War and has historic connections to the military and veterans community.

In response, the Rio Grande Chapter’s El Paso Group chair, Laurence Gibson, issued the following statement:

It has a been a long, long battle for National Monument designation, almost 30 years. Early on we fought and lost over and over. TxDot got a chunk of it. The US Border Patrol got a piece of it. Then, when El Paso’s Regional Economic Development Corporation targeted it for development, we fought and won. The development forces were hindered by the unexploded ordnance that littered the thousands of acres, making it too dangerous for immediate development.

Sierra Club members, working through their single-issue organizations like FMWC, gradually raised awareness of Castner as a potential partner of Franklin Mountains State Park, the largest urban wilderness park in the nation. If there is any one person who deserves credit for this victory, it must be our late member, Judith (Judy) Ackerman.

Credit must also go to U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, who succeeded where others had failed. She brought Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland to El Paso for an on-site visit, as well as touting the designation to President Biden. Judy Ackerman was in on that visit as well as several other non-profit leaders.

So, Hallelujah and kudos to all who worked for this achievement.

This weekend the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas (Esto’k Gna) is holding a youth-led, week-long run and walk from the Permian Basin to the Rio Grande Valley to bring awareness to the harmful, exploitative and unjust impacts of extractive industries on their sacred lands. The event, titled Bridge to the Ancestors, will start with an opening ceremony on March 24th at Monahans Sandhills State Park in Monahans, TX. Over the next 10 days, tribal members will visit eight communities, culminating in a celebration on April 2 in Port Isabel, Texas.

The #BridgetotheAncestors2023 will follow a path through the Tribe’s lands – honoring sacred sites, bringing awareness to the destruction of those lands from extractive industries, reaching out to affected communities, and sharing Tribal history and stories with youth from our Elders.

The walk/run will mirror (in reverse) the movements of the Tribe’s ancestors, as they escaped Spanish occupation of their homeland in the 1700s. It will highlight sacred sites currently being lost to extractive industries and show the adverse impacts of fossil fuels and petrochemicals on tribal and non-tribal communities.ach day will also bring awareness to an issue facing the Indigenous community:

• March 25: Missing and murdered Indigenous women
• March 26: Missing and murdered Indigenous people
• March 27-28: Land back
• March 29-30: No racist mascots
• March 31: Indian Child Welfare Act
• April 1: Missing children of the mission boarding schools
• After visiting the eight stops, there will be a closing ceremony on April 2 at the Port Isabel Community Center, in Port Isabel, TX. The Tribe is inviting partners, allies and members of the public to join the Bridge to the Ancestors run/walk. You can follow the walk at BridgetotheAncestors.org or on social media FB/IG/TikTok @Estok_gna_somisek

@Estok_gna_somisek will be sharing live updates everyday of the walk as well as using the following hashtags:
#BridgeToTheAncestors2023
#BridgeToTheAncestors
#CarrizoComecrudoTribeOfTexas
#SaveOurSacredSites
#RightsOfOriginalPeoples
#WeAreTheLand
#SaveGarciaPasture

Below you can find contact information for Tribal members, who can speak on the record about this event, and the unjust impacts caused by the industry on tribal land. As always, don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything!

EXPERTS:
Juan Mancias, Tribal Chairman of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas (Esto’k Gna), onebigjuan@gmail.com
Christa Mancias, co-Organizer of the Bridge to the Ancestors Walk/Run, chrissysontirim26@gmail.com
Deanna Santiago, co-Organizer of the Bridge to the Ancestors Walk/Run, ladonadivina@gmail.com

Bridge to the Ancestors Walk/Run Location Schedule: The specific schedule and locations along the entire route are not being shared with the public due to security reasons, but journalists can talk to tribal members to learn more about the communities being visited each day.

• March 24: Opening ceremony: Monahans, Texas
• April 2: World Monument Watch Day and closing ceremony Port Isabel, Texas

Every year, residents of El Paso, Texas, and neighboring areas in southern New Mexico are exposed to dangerous levels of ozone, a corrosive air pollutant that attacks the lungs and other parts of the body, contributing to respiratory problems, cardiovascular issues, and premature deaths.

The American Lung Association ranks El Paso-Las Cruces at No. 12 on a list of the most ozone-polluted metropolitan areas in the United States, worse than New York, Chicago, and Dallas–Fort Worth.

After years of litigation and advocacy spearheaded by the Sierra Club and local activists, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finally started to take meaningful action to reduce pollution in the region. Last year, the agency designated El Paso County as a “nonattainment” area for ozone, expanding an existing nonattainment area that included Sunland Park, NM, a small suburb of El Paso. The EPA’s designation initiates a process for reducing emissions from facilities in El Paso that contribute to the air-pollution problem.

Unfortunately, the State of Texas continues to expertly deploy every loophole in the Clean Air Act to try to avoid taking common-sense action to reduce pollution in El Paso. Earlier this year, it filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, arguing that EPA is moving too fast in trying to clean up pollution in El Paso, and asking the court to rule that the entire process must be delayed by three years. Sierra Club — represented by Las Cruces attorney David Baake and Joshua Smith of the Club’s Environmental Law Program — has intervened to support EPA in arguing against Texas’s meritless suit.

Texas is also seeking an exemption from the requirement to impose new emission controls on industrial sources, claiming (falsely) that these limits would not make a difference to local air quality because all of the regional pollution is caused by Mexico (the science, including expensive modeling that Texas itself prepared, shows otherwise).

Sierra Club prepared detailed comments urging EPA to deny Texas’s request for an exemption earlier this year. Much more needs to be done to clean up the air in the borderlands, but recent actions by EPA have been encouraging. We will continue to support EPA’s work and urge it to act with greater haste to protect public health in the borderlands.

Featured image from El Paso Matters. Click here to read more. 

On Wednesday, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission unanimously denied El Paso Electric’s request to build a 228-MW natural-gas generator, citing EPE’s failure to consider the requirements of the Energy Transition Act.

The air quality in communities around the plant, including Chaparral, NM, and northern El Paso County, already violates federal standards for ozone and other dangerous pollutants. The additional generator would have increased those dangerous levels. While it is not clear how El Paso Electric will respond, EPE will have to decide whether it still makes sense to go forward with the project for only its Texas customers. A coalition of local groups is urging the El Paso City Council to use its legal authority to reject the plant entirely on a municipal level.

More than 1,200 New Mexicans submitted comments opposing EPE’s polluting generator to the PRC. A broad community coalition, including Chaparral residents, Sunrise El Paso, neighborhood faith leaders of Interfaith Power and Light, Earthworks, Vote Solar and Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, worked together to raise the voices of families who want clean-energy development and healthy air for their children to breathe.

“The Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy demonstrated that had El Paso Electric properly evaluated its proposed resource in light of the ETA, it could have selected a better, cheaper and greener alternative. We commend the PRC for protecting its ratepayers from higher costs and more pollution by requiring compliance with the Energy Transition Act,”
said CCAE attorney Stephanie Dzur. CCAE was one of the intervenors in the case.

“The NMPRC saw right through El Paso Electric’s bad-faith arguments. As El Pasoans, we appreciate the Commission’s decision to prioritize clean energy over dirty fossil fuels in this time of climate crisis. We hope to see the similar decisions being made by our leaders here in El Paso,”
said Sunrise El Paso organizer Angel Ulloa.

“El Paso Electric’s Newman 6 fracked-gas fueled power plant proposal disregards widespread community opposition, local health impacts, and the worsening climate crisis. Hopefully the El Paso City Council will follow NMPRC’s lead and act to block it as well.”
Earthworks, West Texas Field Associate, Miguel Escoto

“Rejecting this polluting plant would be a win for our community, especially for the colonias in southern Doña Ana County and northern El Paso County, as they are most impacted by this dirty generating station,”
said Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Southern New Mexico organizer Antoinette Reyes.

“We need to continue to consider our communities’ health and care of God’s creation and climate change that affects the most vulnerable and future generations as we make decisions about energy production. New Mexico Interfaith Power and light is grateful that the Public Regulatory Commission took these ethical and moral concerns into consideration in their decision that affects our brothers and sisters in frontline communities of Chaparral and South East New Mexico,”
said Sister Joan Brown, osf, Executive Director New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light.

The commission accepted hearing examiner Elizabeth Hurst’s recommendation to deny EPE’s request. Hurst agreed with our Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy that the plant was not in the public interest.

Please thank your PRC commissioners by writing a quick personal note to them at these email addresses: 

Valerie Espinoza: Valerie.Espinoza@state.nm.us
Cynthia Hall: Cynthia.Hall@state.nm.us
Jefferson Byrd: Jeff.Byrd@state.nm.us
Theresa Becenti-Aguilar: T.Becenti@state.nm.us
Stephen Fischmann: stephen.fischmann@state.nm.us

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Now, El Paso Electric wants to build another 228-megawatt fracked-gas generator at the plant, just over the Texas border from Chaparral, a New Mexico colonia that already suffers dangerous levels of air pollution.

This gas expansion would make our air even more dangerous, set back our climate efforts and discourage clean-energy development in the region for decades.

The Public Regulation Commission’s hearing examiner has recommended rejection of EPE’s permit to build this gas generator, pointing out that El Paso Electric failed to consider the Energy Transition Act’s requirements that will require the plant to close by 2045 and because the expansion is unnecessary and expensive — and not in the public interest.

PRC commissioners are likely to vote on EPE’s permit on Wednesday. Please click here to urge your commissioners to reject EPE’s dirty gas plan!

With your help, we can stop this unnecessary fossil-fuel development and make way for clean, renewable energy in New Mexico and El Paso.

Thank you,
Antoinette Reyes
Southern New Mexico organizer
Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter

P.S.: read more about the issue here.

As I look to the east of town at night, it looks like a prison or an airport, something of importance.

Initially the lights were white, then some yellow ones were added years later, and now I can see red blinking lights, the signs of industrial activity where there used to be almost none. The area is about 5 miles from my house, but all activities in the area are of Urenco, the uranium-enrichment facility, Waste Control Specialists-ISP, the nuclear dump that is on the other side of the Texas state line from Urenco, and then there are the new windmills on the Texas side. Then there is the ever-present Lea County landfill for all of the Lea County communities and now a new Loves Truckstop.

Some people call it economic diversity for Lea County, N.M. I call it a paradox. I recall the days when I would see a calm and dry desert scene common in this area, with cows and the occasional coyote or rabbit. I remember when the basic jobs picture involved oil and gas extraction and all the necessary ancillary businesses required for that industry.

Now I find myself going from one environmental fight to another. I tried fighting off Urenco, after it had been run off from Louisiana and Tennessee because they weren’t wanted there. I tried fighting Waste Control Specialists when they wanted their low-level nuclear-waste license. I spoke against the changes that the Department of Energy wanted to make on waste volume and expansion at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (even as I recall the fire and waste explosion in 2014), about 37 miles from my house, and now I fight the proposed Holtec International project sited 35 miles from my home near WIPP.

Holtec seeks to bring 173,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste from around the country and even possibly from overseas. They talk of possible reprocessing of the waste in the future. I am also fighting the high-level nuclear waste license application by WCS-ISP, which wants to bring 40,000 tons of high-level commercial waste to a site just on the other side of the Texas border from us. Interestingly, both applications are being considered simultaneously.

The draft Environmental Impact Statement on both Holtec and WCS-ISP claim there will be small impacts to the area, to jobs, to people, yet no one really knows since this will be an experiment that hasn’t been done anywhere on anyone else. I feel especially indignant about these two projects because of their proximity to me and my family.

My community in Eunice is small, about 2,700 people, and yet we are disproportionately bearing the brunt of health impacts if these projects go forward. Are we considered expendable? Is the idea “Someone has to do this, so why not here”? Is it our patriotic duty to suffer the known and unknown illnesses that come with living near a high-risk nuclear dump or facility?

We live in the county with the highest cancer rate in New Mexico. We live with the risks associated with oil and gas emissions, and many live with allergies and asthma, like my two grandchildren. How much more should we be required to take for the economy to be diversified enough to satisfy the money whoremongers? I do not consent to be a guinea pig for these companies, nor will I consent to be the national sacrifice area for high-level nuclear waste generated elsewhere and sent to poison me and my family.

Rose Gardner chairs weekly meetings of activists protecting their community from harmful pollution impacts.
Featured image from from World Resource Simulation Center, 

The Americas High School Sierra Student Coalition of the El Paso Group would like to extend heartfelt gratitude to the El Paso Sierra Club and the Rio Grande Chapter for their continued support. We had a great and productive year:

January: We joined forces with El Paso nonprofits on MLK’S National Day of Service to clean up litter on Trans Mountain Road. The students ended the day by hiking the Lost Dog Trails to see first-hand open-space areas that the city wanted to destroy through development of shopping strips and housing.

February: SSC sledded down the sand dunes at White Sands National Monument. Prior to the trip, we conducted a book study on Red by Terry Tempest Williams and shared passages from the book as we watched the sunset over the mountains.

April-May: SSC students worked diligently on voter registration drives, voter data mining, petition drives, social-media blitzing and poll sitting to save wildscapes in our Lost Dog Trails in the Franklin Mountains from being bulldozed and concreted. Our efforts paid off with a resounding 89% voter approval! This was a crowning achievement for the community!

May: We hiked to Osha Trail in the Lincoln National Forest; students were assigned an organism found within the forest. Each student represented their organism as an art form from poetry to paintings, music, etc., and presented their pieces in a sharing circle while relaxing in the Osha Trail meadow.

August: We hiked Dripping Springs Trail in the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument and learned about water issues by taking pH, temperature, phosphate/nitrate readings, and measuring dissolved oxygen levels in the Rio Grande at Leasburg Dam State Park.

September: Students investigated the unique geology of Franklin Mountains State Park by exploring the abandoned Prospect Mine, which is dazzled in lapis, malachite, and pyrite.

Students volunteered at an El Paso Zoo lecture on the Black Bear of Big Bend National Park as a community-service project sponsored by the El Paso Group.

October: AHS Sierra Student Coalition was invited to speak at the El Paso Community Foundation’s Cultivate Speaker Series. Three students presented on the impact of connecting young people to nature and the importance of being environmental stewards.

Students created an altar for Día de los Muertos on endangered species in Texas and New Mexico. The altar paid homage to endangered animals and plants and was used to inform their peers on the current administration’s attacks on the Endangered Species Act.

November: Students spent the day hiking the amazing fall foliage under big tooth leaf maples in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We read “Thinking Like a Mountain” from Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and discussed land ethic issues with park rangers.

December: The students have an upcoming trip on the 13th to hike under a full moon at the Palisades Nature Preserve.

You are cordially invited to celebrate the five-year anniversary of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument.

On May 21, 2014, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument. This was the culmination of the tireless work of our community and officials to protect our lands for generations to come. We raised our voices loud enough for the president of the United States to hear us, and that is a remarkable thing.

To mark the five-year anniversary, the Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks will be hosting a celebration on May 18 at the Las Cruces Convention Center to commemorate the transformative impact the monument has had, and will continue to have, on our community. We are pleased to announce that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will be our keynote speaker.

In the past five years, we have seen visitation to the monument nearly double, bringing with it an increase in tourism to the Mesilla Valley.

The business community has benefitted from this new spotlight on our area, with everything from wine, food, and clothing being branded in relation to the monument. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the monument’s designation has been one of the most consequential events to occur in our region both for our economy and community at large.

We hope you will be able to attend this celebration of a place we all cherish and love.

Purchase tickets

When: Wednesday, March 21, 7:00pm-8:30pm
Where: El Paso Community Foundation, 333 N Oregon St

The panel will be moderated by Camilla Feibelman, director, Rio Grande Chapter Sierra Club, and will include: Kevin Bixby, Executive Director, Southwest Environmental Center; Johana Bencomo, Organizer, Comunidades en Accion y de Fe (CAFé); Cynthia Pompa, Field Organizer, ACLU Regional Center for Border Rights; Armida Hernandez, Linguist; and Noe Labrado, President, Soñando Juntos. It is free and open to the public.

If you live in the area, you won’t want to miss this important discussion. RSVP and details on our Facebook page. Contact (575) 522-5552 or sonya@wildmesquite.org for more info.

Poster (pdf)