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.
Congressman Martin Heinrich campaigned heavily on advocating for clean, renewable energy. And today, Heinrich introduced a piece of legislation designed to promote clean energy and create thousands of jobs.
“By facilitating renewable energy projects on our public lands, we can create jobs while building the clean energy economy,” Heinrich said. “This is a common sense, cost effective approach to promoting clean energy development.”
The Clean Energy Promotion Act would dedicate up to $5 million per year, coming from existing rental payments paid by wind and solar developers for projects on BLM lands, to these offices to process current and future renewable energy applications.
So far no solar energy plans on BLM lands have been approved. There is a backlog of 200 solar energy applications, 25 wind project applications and there are even more locations that applicants would like to begin testing for future wind projects.
Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, approved of Heinrich’s legislation.
“Streamlining the bureaucracy will allow the U.S. to develop our vast solar resources and create tens of thousands of jobs in the American Southwest,” Resch said.
Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), said the AWEA was “grateful to Congressman Heinrich for his leadership on promoting the deployment of renewable energy on public lands.”
“This legislation meshes perfectly with [Interior] Secretary [Ken] Salazar’s establishment of Renewable Energy Coordination Offices. These efforts will help ensure that our nation’s vast renewable energy potential on public lands is developed responsibly with resulting benefits to our economic, national, and environmental security.”
Heinrich’s bill is H.R. 2662.
