Apparently we caught Sen. Martin Heinrich’s attention with our opinion piece decrying his plans to eliminate natural gas appliances. Here is Heinrich’s response which also appeared in several outlets.
The Senator basically makes a few points:
- He personally is pushing a “voluntary” program to essentially help people pay the costs, not a mandatory program. That is true and we never said anything else, but as we noted in the original article 46 cities have adopted mandates of some sort or another. If Heinrich wants to use our tax dollars to get the federal government to pay for people to abandon gas appliances. Is it really a stretch to say he supports or would support actual mandates? He’s never criticized them.
- Heinrich claims that he personally saved money by switching to an electric hot water heater. Perhaps that is true for him personally, but all he is doing at least right now is switching natural gas power in the home for a mix of fossil fuel energy produced elsewhere. The chart below shows the current mix of electricity generation from the Energy Information Administration is about 10% wind and solar. Heinrich’s goal would increase electricity generation needs by 40% (due to increased demand) AND he wants 100% of that to come from wind and solar. That is going to involve MAJOR taxpayer subsidies, mandates, AND large tracts of land being eaten up by wind and solar projects.
Of course, PNM is already warning of brownouts in 2022 when the San Juan Generating Station is forced to close under New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act.
My,my…I’ve never heard of anyone switching from a gas water heater to electric and saving money. Unbelievable. And something else, we recently sold a house in AZ and the new owners put in solar panels on the roof thinking they would save so much money, and ended up spending way more on electricity to the point that they were shocked. They had totally bought into all the hype regarding solar… I hope we don’t find out our dear leader in the senate has invested heavily in Red Chinese solar companies, but it wouldn’t be a surprise.
What’s missing from this discussion is that Sen. Heinrich wants to trade a reasonable gas bill for a whopping electric bill. Electric rates are certain to rise with renewable energy mandates, as we’ve seen in places like Germany and California. Presumably he will call for more government welfare to alleviate the resulting energy poverty.
This is all I’ve heard about him in a long time. Hope he’s enjoying his new job with all the perks and $$$$. Can you spell
G R I F T E R ?