Greening

Governor Richardson's new Renewable Energy Transmission Authority members were announced today in a news conference in Santa Fe. I had gone up for the affair but it turned out it was two hours later than I had thought so I missed it because I had to return to Albuquerque for a meeting.

The picks include Ned Farquhar who is the Mountain West Energy/Climate Advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council. I was glad to see Ned get appointed because he worked hard on the passage of this bill. Essentially, the Authority will be responsible for developing the towers, lines and other infrastructure that will carry renewable energy from their sources to market. This Authority is the first of its kind in the nation. It will have a big task ahead of it as it seeks to build this asset and at the same time protect wilderness and park quality lands in the west. There will need to be compromise on the routing of these powerlines.

Tonight Bobbi and I will go to a preview showing of "The 11th Hour" which is Leonard DiCaprio's documentary concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity. You know people are starting to pay attention when documentaries such as this, and Michael Moore's movies, start drawing impressive audiences. It used to be the domain of television to do such documentaries like this. It is something Edward R. Murrow would have done. The major Networks have pretty much checked out on shows like this. Now you have to pay to go to theaters to see them. I wish we could take entire high school classes to these films.

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