SILVER CITY — U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) visited Silver City on Friday where he chaired the Southwest New Mexico Energy and Green Jobs Task Force meeting in the Western New Mexico University Student Memorial Building.
All of you know how important public service is,” Udall said. “I’m very proud of your work.”
Mary Stoecker, task force member who works at the New Mexico Department of Health office in Silver City, gave a history and update.
“I came on in 2011 when we were addressing issue areas from a regional perspective. We built a strategic plan. I was insistent that it be a short plan,” Stoecker said.
“By 2013, we were ready to go to the governments and ask for their support of implementation of the plan,” she said. “All agreed, except for Catron County, but it’s now considering joining.”
“At the point of implementation, we are focusing on the guiding plan,” Stoecker said. “As slow as it may feel, we’ve come a long way.”
“Collaboration and consensus are tremendously important,” Udall said. “The EDA (Economic Development Administration) feels like this is a real model for other places in the country.”
Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments executive director, talked about the receipt of an EDA Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant for $250,000.
“We are partnering with New Mexico Tech to do the feasibility study for an incubator for the $25,000 match,” Lucero said. “A lot of the award is for how we develop collaboration to assist businesses and local governments around renewable energy. As we accomplish one task, we move to the next one.”
Udall thanked the COG for taking on the task.
The task force also heard a report on the McCune Foundation award.
“New Mexico is lucky to have a foundation like McCune. My sense is that they saw the collaboration and consensus,” Udall said.
Stoecker said the group submitted the application to McCune last fall.
“It came to us through The Wellness Coalition, also active in the four counties. The award, for $15,000, helps support strengthening the four counties, municipalities, commercial, residential and financial entities,” Stoecker said.
Lucero said the award would allow a half-time Americorps volunteer and a quarter-time one to provide outreach on “what we can do with energy efficiency and conservation to complement the EDA award.”
“We saw that the USDA Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program could jumpstart the plan,” said Denise Smith, speaking for the Silver City Office of Sustainability. “The town applied and received the $83,000 grant, with $65,000 going toward energy audits.”
Businesses pay a 25 percent cost share which is rolled back into the program, creasing the number above the 26 businesses we already have participating, Smith said.
“We will hire an energy auditor. Once we have that, we will have recommendations for how to increase energy efficiency, which opens the business up to apply for a grant for energy efficiency,” Smith said.
“As a small business owner,” Silver City Mayor Michael Morones said, “we had an energy audit, not under this program. What we ended up doing was changing all our light fixtures with cost sharing vehicles. Within five years, our investment paid off.”
Morones said his business looked at USDA Rural Economic Development and put solar panels on its roof.
“We now have no electrical costs. With the addition of the state and federal rebates, it was a three-year payoff. Hopefully everyone can take this information back to your communities,” Morones said.
Benny Jasso, Mayor of Deming, reported on the Regional and local Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy successes.
“I’ve been in office only 1½ years, but we look constantly for energy savings,” Jasso said. “We bought a natural gas compressor and have already sold $3,000 worth of compressed natural gas. It has been a significant investment, but is it capable for vehicle filling. Two of our trash trucks are powered by compressed natural gas.”
Deming City Manager Aaron Sera said the station is just now coming online. “The collection trucks used to use fuel at about $400 to $500 a month. Now the compressed natural gas costs us $50 a month.”
The city is also looking at solar development and a partnership with PNM.
Morones said the biggest successes for the Sustainability Plan for 2030 were hitting a huge set of goals.
He said the solar array at the wastewater treatment plan saved money — according to Smith, about $2 million over the 20-year lease. The small array at the Visitor Center takes care of electricity costs, and the timed sprinkler system at the Ben Altamirano field provides about $80,000 savings in water costs. With the water savings, even with population growth the town provides about two-thirds of the high amount used in 2006 to a larger number of people.
“Water rights, with conservation, should sustain us for about 100 years,” Morones said.
Sera said when Silver City did the solar array, Deming piggybacked on the process for Deming, saving it about $60,000 a year.
He said Deming has tapped into PNM rebates for lights at the ballfield and rodeo area, which will return money to the city.
“New Mexico has inadequate transmission systems,” said John Strand of SunZia Transmission. “SunZia is for wind energy transmission. For PNM, most of their load is to Albuquerque. SunZia could help PNM with a transfer station at Socorro.”
Strand said the natural gas plant in Deming is running at 50 percent, because of the lack of transmission infrastructure.
“With SunZia, it will make more renewable energy available to more of New Mexico,” Strand said.
“We see it with the whole Western grid,” Udall said. “We have 73 times the renewable of what we need, but we don’t have the grid to export it. People should see a better grid ties into better employment.”
“We should be looking long-term, so we know how to plan,” Udall continued. “New Mexico has a renewable energy standard. If we had a national renewable standard, it would put pressure to lower costs and get transmission lines. I will work hard on the Production Tax Credit extension.”
Udall chairs SWNM Energy, Green Jobs Task Force meeting
