Same Ole'

I just downloaded the new book by Joyce Kearns Goodwin titled, "The Bully Pulpit, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism."

I will read this book on our upcoming cruise around the Caribbean starting on Monday.  This book shows how these two old time republican presidents took on the mega-trusts and how journalists in those days did what they were supposed to do.

It will be a timely read in that I just got news that ethically challenged elected officials are now trying ever harder to do the wrong thing when dealing with our modern day political trusts.

The first item is  Senate Bill 258, a bill introduced by Sen. Barrasso and other western republican senators (not Heinrich or Udall) in Washington which will be marked up in the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on Thursday.  It grants to federal livestock permittees 20-year grazing permits, replacing the current 10-year permit. Additionally,  permit terms could not be revisited for NEA review for 20 years once the permit is issued. Also it states, the renewal, reissuance, or transfer of a grazing permit or lease by the Secretary of Interior  shall be categorically excluded from the requirement to prepare an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement if the current lease holders want to renew.  This gang of leaseholders have again attempted to carve out subsidies that no one else out side of government would ever grant to a business group.  It is insane.

Second, our own gang of Public Regulatory Commissioners in New Mexico just drove a stake into the heart of renewable energy production in New Mexico.  This was put out by the Sierra Club on Wednesday afternoon, and it is a heart breaker....except for fossil fuel.

"Today, three members of the Public Utility Commission adopted amendments to its renewable energy rule that will essentially cut in half the amount of solar energy that New Mexico utilities are required to produce, and also reduced the amount of renewable energy they are required to add in the future. Commissioner Becenti-Aguilar, Lyons and Hall voted to allow utilities to receive two Renewable Energy Credits (RECS) per kilowatt-hour for solar and three RECs for energy such as biomass and geothermal. Commissioners Espinoza and Montoya voted no, citing concerns about lack of public comment on this proposal and overall reduction of renewable energy production.

Currently, the Commission’s rule requires that 20% of a utility’s renewable resource portfolio be from solar power and 5% from renewable resources other than wind or solar. This rule change will effectively reduce the amount of solar energy required to be generated to 10%, and other resources are reduced to 1.5% of the renewable portfolio. The Renewable Energy Act requires utilities to provide 15% of renewables in 2015 and 20 percent by 2020. But the 2-to-1 credit for solar would reduce the total percentage by giving solar and other resources credit for generation that was not actually produced. The effective reduction would be approximately 3.5% to the required amount of renewables."

I wish Teddy Roosevelt would walk into the PRC Chambers with his Big Stick!