[Lwvcnmtopics] NM PRC Special Edition

[George Richmond]

Avangrid has reached agreement with intervenors:


      Revised Stipulation Agreement for AVANGRID/PNM Resources Merger
      Receives Additional Support From New Mexico Stakeholders

05/08/2021

Agreement now has support of 11 parties in total

Link to full article: 
https://avangrid2019ir.q4web.com/investors/earnings-releases/earnings-releases-details/2021/Revised-Stipulation-Agreement-for-AVANGRIDPNM-Resources-Merger-Receives-Additional-Support-From-New-Mexico-Stakeholders/default.aspx


San Juan Generating Station and Four Corners.  These are two different 
items.

PNM operates the San Juan station and the plan, NOW, is to transfer 
ownership to  a business entity of the Navajo Nation.

The Four Corners station, which is nearby, is operated by AZ Public 
Service and is expected to close by 2031.

<div><br 
class="Apple-interchange-newline">https://apnews.com/article/13994822a3d38d2a22c11b34efcf4807</div> 

copy


  Coal industry on Navajo Nation could end with plant closure

By FELICIA FONSECAJanuary 23, 2020


FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The closure of a coal-fired power plant on the 
Navajo Nation sooner than expected will be a major blow to a region 
where coal has been a mainstay of the economy for decades.

The Arizona Public Service Co. now plans to shutter the Four Corners 
Power Plant near Farmington, New Mexico, in 2031 when its coal contract 
expires rather than wait until 2038.

The news came as New Mexico regulators consider plans for the 2022 
closure of San Juan Generating Station, another coal-fired power plant 
just miles away off the Navajo reservation.

The moves have prompted regional officials to say they are even more 
focused on promoting tourism and recreation as economic alternatives and 
ensuring the area has reliable internet and other infrastructure to 
entice manufacturing, data centers and other businesses.

“There’s a lot of transitioning happening,” said Arvin Trujillo, chief 
executive of Four Corners Economic Development group. “We’re looking at 
how do we take the challenges we have and begin to look at more positive 
aspects and how do we get the full region to begin to work together.”

The Four Corners plant went online in the 1960s. Arizona Public Service 
Co. is the majority owner, with smaller shares held by Public Service 
Co. of New Mexico, the Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power and the 
Navajo Nation.

Three of the units shut down in 2014, and the coming full closure likely 
means the coal mine that feeds the plant will shutter, too. The mine is 
owned by the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. — a business arm of the 
tribe. The company said Thursday its plans and financials have centered 
around the end of the coal contract in 2031, and it will work to 
diversify the tribe’s energy sources.

The mine and power plant employ more than 700 mostly Navajo workers. The 
plant has an annual payroll of nearly $100 million, APS said. Another 
$100 million a year is paid in taxes, fees and coal royalties to tribal, 
local, state and federal entities, with an economic impact that APS 
estimates is more than double that amount.

APS spokeswoman Lily Quezada said the utility will work with employees 
and nearby communities on the transition.

“We will be open and transparent and will provide as long a lead time as 
possible to reduce the impact of job losses and lower tax revenue,” she 
wrote in an email.

The other owners have no plans to run the power plant themselves and 
said they’ll replace the coal-fired power with other sources.

Arizona requires utilities to get 15% of their energy from renewable 
sources by 2025. APS has a more aggressive plan, saying it will rely on 
the nation’s largest nuclear power plant as it adds renewable power, 
battery storage and other sources of energy. It has vowed to have 45% 
renewable energy by 2030 and be carbon-free by 2050.

In New Mexico, investor-owned utilities must be carbon-free by 2045 
under an energy transition law adopted last year. Implementation of the 
law is tangled up in a regulatory fight, but Public Service Co. of New 
Mexico already has pledged to divest itself of coal and natural gas by 2040.

The closure of the Four Corners Power Plant likely will mark the end of 
decades of coal mining on the vast Navajo Nation, which extends into 
Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Two other power plants that relied on coal 
from the reservation closed in 2005 and last year.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said the tribe isn’t closing the 
door on fossil fuel but is heeding public desire for energy developed 
from wind and solar. The tribe has a couple of solar plants in Kayenta, 
Arizona, and is working with the Salt River Project on others.

“The Nation has an abundant amount of coal, and we don’t know what types 
of new technology will be developed in the future that might allow for 
cleaner production of power,” he said in a statement. “But we are moving 
forward with renewable energy as our top priority.”

Trujillo, who worked as a coal mining engineer for more than a decade 
and later worked for APS, said some people are reluctant to move on from 
an industry that built the middle class Navajo Nation. He said his group 
also is working with area colleges to retrain the workforce.

“The biggest piece is that uncertainty,” Trujillo said. “People don’t 
know, and when they don’t know, they start to get scared and they don’t 
know how they’re going to take care of their families.”


Enjoy your Sunday,

George Richmond, Observer to the NM PRC

I expect the Hearings on the Merger to start this week...with approval 
later this year.

-- 
George M. Richmond
152 Juniper Hill Road, NE
Albuquerque, NM 87122-1913

C: 505-280-2105
E: geomrich1 at comcast.net



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