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Morning Word
PNM seeks rate increase
New Mexico’s largest electricity provider wants to raise rates for all customers a little over a year from now. The Public Service Company of New Mexico, aka PNM, filed a rate change request with the state Public Regulation Commission yesterday. The first such request since 2016, “is essential to reflect the changes and investments in New Mexico’s energy future,” PNM says in a news release about the proposal. If approved, the changes will take place around January 2024 and cost about 75 cents per residential customer, with industrial and commercial rate increases also kicking in. PNM says the new revenue will pay for “enhanced customer service” and elimination of a third-party fee for credit card payments and notes the company’s new calculations include savings for ratepayers from the closure of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in the Four Corners and a new lease agreement on nuclear energy from the Palo Verde plant in Arizona. “This rate change request reflects hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in the electric grid, our communities and our environment since our last rate change request, ensuring reliability and resilience for the future,” said PNM CEO Pat Vincent-Collawn in a statement. “At the same time our departure from coal and transition to renewable energy is allowing us to keep our requested increase to a minimum and our rates for residential customers low in comparison to others in the region and nation.” Read PNM’s frequently asked questions here.
Rethinking Richards Avenue
A plan to relieve traffic congestion between Cerrillos and Rodeo roads and in the burgeoning Community College District by creating a new connection between two sides of Richard Avenue remains in the conceptual stage, according to Santa Fe Land Use staff and a project consultant who held a meeting on the proposal last night. Long discussed, the most recent iteration of the connection across the Arroyo de los Chamisos popped up in 2020 and, earlier this year, the city’s Public Works Department seemed settled on a “split T” intersection at Richards and Camino Del Prado—having whittled the plan down from four proposals, including one in which there would be no construction at all, to one. But after a meeting in May, according to the city’s website, the Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization requested the project move forward with a roundabout, connecting both sections of Richards with Camino del Prado and the current east-west section of Richards. Residents of the Bellemah neighborhood north of the arroyo are particularly worried about the effect of the planned roadway. Lucy River, who previously spoke to SFR about concerns she might lose part of her property to the new construction, again shared her frustration at the meeting. She objects to the “project as a whole,” but conceded the roundabout option might cut down on speeding drivers. “It feels a little bit like we’re frogs being boiled by degrees to death,” River said.
Outdoor Rec Division leadership shift
The first director of the state’s Outdoor Recreation Division will step down from the post at the end of the year, the state announced yesterday. Axie Nava, a former Outside magazine editor, said in a statement that she was proud to have launched the state’s Outdoor Equity Fund and grown outdoor industry career opportunities “by a magnitude of almost 20. I’m confident that this is just the beginning, and that ORD’s momentum will continue to pick up speed from here under the guidance of the next director,” she said. Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes noted “the state has shown that strategic investments in outdoor recreation are creating jobs and helping to grow businesses across the state. Axie has led this charge with innovative and groundbreaking work, garnering many accomplishments for New Mexico along the way. We thank her for her service and wish her luck in the next phase of her career as she balances that with her new obligations as a first-time parent.” The Bureau of Economic Analysis annual report released in early November ranks New Mexico fifth in the nation for outdoor recreation employment growth in 2021, with an 18.2% increase in the sector year over year.
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Dec. 5: New cases: 1,592 (includes the weekend); 649,575 total cases. The most recent report on geographic trends shows a close to 27% decrease in reported cases over the prior seven-day period compared to the week of Nov. 21. Deaths: DOH expected to update COVID-19 fatalities yesterday but now says that update will likely happen later this week; Santa Fe County has had 367 total deaths; 8,702 total fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 204; Patients on ventilators: eight.
State officials issued a public health order last week including a recommendation that New Mexicans wear masks when in indoor public settings to prevent the transmission of respiratory disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Dec. 1 “community levels” map, which uses a combination of hospital and case rate metrics to calculate COVID-19 risk for the prior seven-day period, shows three counties categorized as “orange”—high risk—for COVID-19, versus eight last week. They are: McKinley, San Juan and Valencia. Santa Fe County remains “green,” identifying lower risk. Ten counties are “yellow,” with medium risk. Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.
Resources: CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; Curative testing sites; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. DOH encourages residents to download the NM Notify app and to report positive COVID-19 home tests on the app.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
Want to hear “rocking chair wisdom from three old guys”? Camp Codger podcast is created from Santa Fe, and the most recent 19-minute episode features the personal discoveries of the hosts’ experiences with “the best bands of the ‘60s.” It’s not all The Beatles, (although the “longhaired kids from England” get a mention), but a little of The Beach Boys, Johnny Mathis, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, plus Janis Joplin and Carole King, too.
Fonda’s Fire Drills resume
Speaking of keeping the story of the ‘60s alive, New Mexico resident Jane Fonda’s political activism is still going strong. The Washington Post writes that the soon-to-be 85-year-old has revived “Fire Drill Fridays,” the weekly demonstrations she began in 2019 to draw attention to climate change. Fonda, who was diagnosed this summer with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has been through chemotherapy treatments, tells the Post, “It took a couple of weeks to recover. Cancer is scary, but the climate crisis is scarier.” During the most recent election cycle, she formed the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, which supported 70 “climate champions,” including Public Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver. “Fonda was on the hustings in New Mexico and Texas this past year, doing the kind of ground-level campaigning she’s loved since becoming politically active in the 1960s and 1970s,” writes the Post. “’The best antidote for depression is knocking on doors,’ she observes. ‘Over and over, it happened to me. It just makes all the difference in the world.’”
Peek inside Governor’s Mansion
Each New Mexico governor works with the state Department of Cultural Affairs to choose art for the Governor’s Mansion in Santa Fe, making the residence a de facto art museum. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s display features glass by Marvin Oliver, Georgia O’Keeffe’s spring cottonwoods, a cubist rendition of Taos Pueblo by Andrew Dasburg, a Gerald Cassidy and an amazing piece by Paul Burlin that received extensive restoration, among many others. Glimpse twinkling lights and seasonal finery—along with the paintings, sculpture and pottery, plus historic and historically inspired furnishings—as part of the mansion’s annual Holiday Open House today from 1 to 3 pm and at the same time next Tuesday, Dec. 13. (For extra homework before you go: read SFR’s feature on the home in its “Castles, Ruins and Mysteries” story earlier this year, or take a virtual tour with a PBS video narrated by Santa Fe writer Hampton Sides last year.) Plus, light refreshments (cookies, we hope) and piano music.
Tender and mild
The National Weather Service forecasts a day that’s partly sunny, with a high near 48. Northwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Watch for increasing chances for valley rain showers and mountain snow across northwest areas, with a chance of rain in Santa Fe tomorrow.
Thanks for reading! The (Substitute) Word is celebrating a $500,000 gift to Española Humane announced yesterday. Some of our best friends have come from there!
