I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant may be envisioned as a state-of-the-art facility that reduces pollution a great deal compared to conventional power plants, but the Natural Resources Defense Council still ranks it quite high for the amount of waste it’ll produce.
Comparing it to 80 proposed coal plants nationwide, the NRDC ranks Desert Rock No. 13 in amount of coal waste at 366,937 tons. And when it comes to toxic metals, the plant is 17th on the list at 339 tons.
The NRDC also links to a report about existing coal plants, ranking New Mexico No. 10 for most coal waste pollution with 3,799,300 tons. As one wades through the data, one kind of scary tidbit jumps out — about 517,000 tons of the coal waste ends up in ponds.
NRDC cited their data and methodology:
… Permit applications and news reports for new plants, Energy Information Administration data, NRDC estimates. The most recent data available from the EIA is from 2005 and it is possible that operational changes at particular plants will have changed the yearly waste volumes and disposal methods. Click here for detailed glossary of terms and our methodology.
