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.
Gov. Susana Martinez said she’s still angry at the New Mexico Gas Company over the fact that areas of the state did not have natural gas as of Tuesday. Meanwhile, state Sen.Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, requested an investigation from the Attorney General’s office on the causes of the crisis.
After addressing a joint session of the New Mexico House and Senate, Martinez told reporters, “I am angry, and the people deserve to be angry.”
Martinez once again placed blame on New Mexico Gas Company for the long outages.
“There should have been better preparation and better advance notice by the gas company to all New Mexicans so they could have planned for this storm,” Martinez said. “Here we are now on top of another storm.”
Cisneros hand-delivered a letter to New Mexico Attorney General Gary King asking for an investigation into the natural gas outage.
A portion of the letter reads:
I request that you immediate assemble a task force of assistant attorney generals and investors to: (1) ensure that the claims process established by the New Mexico Gas Company is fair and designed to appropriately reimburse New Mexicans for their person and business losses due to this outage; (2) vigorously investigate and prosecute those found to be responsible for taking advantage of New Mexicans whose gas supply was disconnected; (3) represent the state of New Mexico in recovering any losses it incurred in responding to this crisis; and (4) pursue any other legal action that you believe is warranted.
“It is horrifying New Mexicans have endured bitterly cold nights without heat due to the outage,” Cisneros said in a statement.
The New Mexico Gas Company announced a fund of $1 million dedicated to settling claims by “customers who suffered property damage or other effects of massive loss of gas service.” Martinez said she doesn’t believe this will be enough.
Federal agencies and the New Mexico congressional delegation will hold a public forum on post-storm aid on Thursday in Española.
