Morning Word
PNM reaches settlement agreement over San Juan plant
If approved by the courts and state regulators, under a settlement agreement regarding the closure of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station filed Friday by PNM and nine other parties, residential customers could see their bills drop by approximately 11% per month for a year through $115 million in bill credits—$9.28 per month. “We have been working towards this transition for many years and appreciate the collaborative effort from parties to reach a unanimous settlement to complete the final steps,” PNM CEO Pat Vincent-Collawn said in a statement. “As the solar and battery storage replacement power resources also begin to come online, we are seeing the full scope of the Energy Transition Act’s benefits for our customers, the environment, employees and the communities impacted by the plant’s closure.” The proposed settlement also would allow PNM to issue bonds under the Energy Transition Act, with interest rate on the bonds capped at 5.5% and an additional rate credit to be paid if the interest rate exceeds the cap. According to a news release from Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s office, the parties in the case have asked the state Supreme Court to send the case back to the Public Regulation Commission to approve the settlement; once a pending appeal over PNM’s delayed issuance of the bonds is dismissed, customers could begin seeing reduced bills within 30 days. “This settlement could not come at a better time for ratepayers affected by weather and the rising cost of food, housing and other basic needs,” Torrez said in a statement. “Our team worked around the clock to get the best deal for ratepayers and I believe we have achieved that goal. I am gratified that we were able to work with PNM to get a full rate credit and to protect ratepayers from higher interest rates.”
NTSB: Impaired pilot caused 2021 fatal hot air balloon crash
The pilot operating a hot air balloon that crashed into a power line in June 2021, killing all of its passengers, failed “to maintain adequate clearance from power lines while maneuvering for landing,” according to the final report issued last week by the federal National Transportation Safety Board. Moreover, pilot Nicholas Meleski’s impairment from recent use of cocaine and cannabis “likely” contributed to the accident, the report says. A review of surveillance video from a local business shows “the balloon began a climb before the intersection, with the power lines across the road. Video then depicted the balloon descending into the power lines as it crossed about perpendicular to the wires. Shortly thereafter, the balloon contacted a high-tension power line, an arc appeared, and the basket separated from the envelope and subsequently impacted the road,” the report says. An examination of the balloon following the accident showed no evidence “of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.” The crash killed Meleski, along with passengers Susan and John Montoya, and Martin and Mary Martinez. A statement from Meleski’s family, reported by KOB Channel 4, reads: “We thank the National Transportation Safety Board for the effort and time spent on the investigation of the tragic accident. We cannot express the depth of our grief and sadness for the pain this accident has caused—our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the passengers.”
PED: Homegrown teacher program growing
A state program that fosters local educators has grown by approximately 30% this year, according to the Public Education Department, which reports nearly 500 participants in Educator Fellows NM this year, compared with 380 last year. The two-year fellowship allows participants interested in becoming licensed educators to work as paid educational assistants, while receiving paid leave to attend up to 12 hours of college coursework a week and full health benefits. A news release characterizes the program as one that is “attractive to those who want to remain in their communities” because “it is a prime way to foster homegrown future educators.” The news release highlights Fellow Naomilynn Macias, who has been at Cochiti Elementary Middle School since the spring semester of 2022. “Pena Blanca has always been home for us and being able to be a part of my community feels like I’m helping my community made the adjustment easier,” Macias says in a statement. “We can work under our mentors and learn how to teach with hands-on experience to be better prepared when it is our turn to take the reins.” Moreover, according to PED, last year, more than 15% of fellows were Native American, and 25% percent sought bilingual licensure. “Many of the Ed Fellows participating in our program are working in school districts within their own communities,” Ed Fellows Coach Bobbie Shack (Zuni Pueblo) said in a statement. “How powerful that is for students to see their own community members in front of classrooms and leading lessons! Our fellows send the message to their students that they, our fellows, are working to become teachers.” More info on the program can be found here.
Food policy council seeks members
The Santa Fe Food Policy Council is seeking new members to serve on the joint city and county body whose mission is to create and maintain “a regional food system that provides safe and nutritious food at reasonable prices to all residents, particularly those in need.” The council includes nine members from the private sector, including two city employees and two county employees. The mayor appoints five with approval from the City Council and the county appoints the other four. According to a city news release, the private sector members of the council “should be actively engaged in at least one program, service or business related to hunger and food insecurity, the production, processing and distribution of food including representatives from the food industry, consumers, educators and dieticians. From among these nine, at least one should represent nutrition education, and one should represent the for-profit food industry.” The SFFPC meets virtually at 9 am the second Thursday of the month. Interested applicants should apply online via the City’s PrimeGov portal by 5 pm, Thursday, Aug. 31.
Listen up
The 101st edition of Santa Fe Indian Market has come and gone, with 1,000 artists and thousands of attendees filling the downtown streets to shop, eat, visit, hear music, watch performances and soak in the annual celebration of Indigenous arts. Relive or grab a taste of what you missed with Native America Calling’s live show from the market (starting approximately six minutes in), with host Shawn Spruce, featuring guests: Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Vice Chairman Dawn Houle (Chippewa Cree from Rocky Boy Montana); Mandolin Rain Song (Taos Pueblo), segment producer for season 2 of Native America on PBS (premiers Oct. 26); Jennifer Johns (Diné), series producer for Native America; and contemporary artist Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo). Catch more sights and sounds from Indian Market via Indian Country Today and SWAIA’s social media accounts. Find a roundup of this year’s market winners here.
Artsy NM
The Washington Post’s Department of Data series tackles the question of which US states have the most writers and visual artists, a query, staff writer Andrew Van Dam writes, “that summons thoughts of the romantic, turquoise-tinged, high-desert art colonies of Taos, N.M.” Analyzing Census Bureau data from the last decade, Van Dam validates his intuition. New Mexico, he says, “ranks in the top five for visual artists such as painters, sculptors, craft artists and printmakers” (fourth, to be precise). Maine ranks among the top 10 states for working writers and authors (which also jibed with Van Dam’s Murder She Wrote associations), whereas Vermont is the top state for both creative categories. Washington, DC also ranks well for writers, pointing toward the possibility of writers thriving more in rainy, gloomy climates than places with endless sunshine, although Van Dam notes “the average rainfall in your birth state does not seem to dictate your future creative career.” He isn’t entirely ready to rule out weather as a factor in artistic achievement, though: “We saw signs that states with lower average heat indexes spawned more visual artists,” he writes, although “that faint signal is easily drowned out by stronger associations with education and economics.”
Skin deep
Both the LA Times and The Nation write about Santa Fe author Jenn Shapland’s new collection of essays, Thin Skin. Shapland, LAT writes, defines “thin skinned” as to “feel keenly, to perceive things that might go unseen, unnoticed, that others might prefer not to notice.” The collection’s title chapter opens with what Shapland notices in New Mexico, specifically her acknowledgement of what Los Alamos National Laboratory’s existence—and the atomic experiments it birthed—meant for Indigenous and native Hispanic people in the area, among others. “Shapland’s book is the film Oppenheimer should have been, one that reflects on the Manhattan Project’s lasting impact on the world community,” LAT writes. “With a writing style that recalls the work of Eula Biss and a goal in solidarity with “Who is Wellness For?” by Fariha Róisín, Shapland opens Thin Skin with devastating statistics tying nuclear waste to cancer rates before turning to people, speaking with tribal leaders and even with her own parents.” Santa Fe also receives Shapland’s eagle-eyed descriptions, and she ultimately decrees: “The city itself is a lifestyle brand.” The Nation interviews Shapland, who also references Oppenheimer, noting: There’s this impulse to historicize and say the bomb is something that happened in the past—to grapple with it as history, but it’s actually very much present. In my day-to-day life in New Mexico, and even more so in the day-to-day lives of the people who have been exposed more directly, whose loved ones have been exposed or who are continuing to be exposed, or who are being sent to college to learn how to produce plutonium pits for the Biden administration. That’s a thing that’s happening right now.” Shapland, author of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, writes about the thinking and process behind her new collection, in a new essay for LitHub.
Weather or not
The National Weather Service forecasts a 20% chance for precipitation today and tonight, with isolated showers and thunderstorms after noon and before 3 am. Otherwise, it will be mostly sunny, with a high temperature near 85 degrees and southeast wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon and up to 30 mph after midnight. For an interesting (and poetic) read about extreme heat, check out Terry Tempest Williams’ new essay in the New York Times.
Thanks for reading! The Word finds the end of the summer a fitting time to dig into an analysis of the critique of the disinformation framework.
