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 middle of summer brings the year’s peak in electricity usage, and thanks to a recent rate hike, this could be the most expensive summer ever for keeping cool in New Mexico.
PNM customers are feeling the pinch from a big increase in electricity rates, but so are customers elsewhere. As the Christian Science Monitor reports today, the cost of fuel has driven up the cost of electricity nationwide:
Consumers from California to New York are facing rate increases of as much as 30 percent. Average homeowners’ electric bills are now heading towards $70 to $80 a month in some states.
In New Mexico, PNM customers’ electric bills have risen by nearly 20 percent since May. According to PNM, the average residential customer uses about 600 kilowatt-hours per month. Before the rate increase, they paid approximately $48 per month in the summer; it’s now $57. (Winter rates will increase about 12.2 percent for a year-round average increase of 14 percent.)
July and August, when swamp coolers and air conditioners run the most, are when customers use the most electricity, so the highest bills we’ll see all year will arrive in mailboxes next month.
"Our customers have seen the first increase in rates in 20 years," PNM spokeswoman Susan Sponar said today. "That’s because the cost to provide electricity has been increasing, and it continues to increase."
In New Mexico, most of our electricity is generated by burning coal, the cost of which has doubled in the past 18 months, according to the Monitor.
The spike in electricity rates could also have an effect on Albuquerque-area water bills. As the Journal reported this spring:
Executive Director Mark Sanchez of the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Authority said Wednesday that PNM’s request would add 56 percent to the water authority’s power bill next year— an extra $3.3 million. "It will be very, very difficult for us to absorb that," Sanchez said. Water board Chairwoman Deanna Archuleta said the probable solution would be to raise rates.
Since then the Authority has softened its stance on a rate increase, but no final decisions have been made. "We are examining the new rates and have yet to determine what the impact will be in terms of our own rate structure," spokesman David Morris said today. "Our board is doing everything in its power to keep rates stable."
