There is an effort  underway at Albuquerque City Council to make some necessary improvements in governance and accountability at the unelected (and unaccountable) Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Board. A resolution and ordinance will be voted on as soon as this Monday, October 30. You can contact your councilors to lend your support to this resolution and ordinance here.

Resolution  23-176 Ensures the board follows the Air Quality Control Act and operates with accountability when creating regulations.

Ordinance 23-88 Removes the current Air Quality Control Board ordinance and replaces it with a board that establishes the Joint Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board.

You can read more information from Councilor Lewis here. Here are some reasons why this needs to be undertaken:

The resolution and ordinance put forth by Councilor Dan Lewis is an attempt to  ensure that the Board that currently sees itself as autonomous and that is not subject to control or answerable to the council, the commission, city administration or the governor. That means they do not feel they are accountable to the public. If they are not accountable to elected public offices that created the board, they are not accountable to the electorate.

The board has continued to work on issues that the courts have said are not allowed under current law. Lewis’s resolution prohibits them from doing what the courts have already said they can’t do.

The ordinance was drafted to correct these and a few other problems that are the result of the board’s actions.

Plenty to discuss on the EV front. I had an opinion piece that ran in numerous papers statewide on the Gov’s EV mandate.

The City of Albuquerque is buying electric buses from a company favored by the Biden Administration which is also bankrupt. A bus service in Wyoming can’t even get spare parts.

In yet another EV debacle the City of Albuquerque installed an electric shuttle (replacing the train from the Zoo to the Biopark). Apparently the shuttle doesn’t work very well in the cold or heat and it likely won’t be ready for River of Lights. 

According to a story from Yahoo Finance an EV could cost $13,000 MORE than the cost of a gas-powered vehicle to own over its lifetime.

A British columnist wrote this week: “We must put a stop to the electric vehicle revolution – before someone gets hurt.” One fire took 20,000 gallons of water to put out.

People are sending thousands of emails to the EIB through our new site: KeepyourcarsNM.com

A new report ranks New Mexico a mediocre 35th in school choice.

An Albuquerque city council candidate faked HAVING a felony conviction.

The following chart provided from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity is just the latest in a long series of charts which highlight the massive disparity between the massive subsidies provided for solar (and geothermal, wind, and biomass, mostly ethanol) and the relatively tiny subsidies handed to traditional energy sources.

So-called “environmentalists” like to claim that all forms of energy receive subsidies or that oil and gas are somehow the recipients of the bulk of subsidies, but the reality could not be more different once the amount of energy produced by each source is actually considered.

Dating back (at least) to Sen. Mimi Stewart’s infamous quote that “We don’t know how to teach kids from poverty” and more recent reporting about New Mexico’s high rates of absenteeism.  You’d think there might be more self-reflection on the failure of a “free” school system to successfully encourage students to attend school.

Unlike New Mexico, Arizona is actually doing something to help poor kids stay in and succeed in school. As the chart below shows, the State’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program is disproportionately benefiting poor families. Will allowing students to attend a school of their choice improve student outcomes in Arizona? Their past record of being a leader in school choice would seem to bode well, (certainly better than New Mexico’s track record) but only time will tell.

Back in January we reported on the Albuquerque BioPark’s challenging transition to an electric shuttle. Sadly, as Downtown Albuquerque News points out in a recent story (the news source is available by email subscription only but relevant items have been posted below), there are STILL issues with the shuttle. And, with River of Lights fast approaching, there is “no timeline for putting it back in service.”

Notably, as is so often the case with EV’s, problems have arisen with service on both warm and cold days.

On this week’s conversation Paul sits down with energy journalist and commentator Robert Bryce. Bryce is the author of 6 books on energy and writes regularly at his substack. We discuss various energy issues, but especially focus on Gov. Lujan Grisham’s headlong push for electric vehicle mandates and subsidies and why they are so flawed. You don’t want to miss this timely conversation!

New Mexico’s poor educational performance is well-known, but according to a new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) the State has failed to empower parents to choose the educational options that make sense for their children.

The report called the State Education Freedom Index ranks all 50 states on various and comprehensive measurements of school choice. New Mexico ranked a mediocre 35th out of 50 in the report. You can click on the map below to read the report.

RGF launches “Keep Your Cars”initiative. According to a new poll Americans are not ready to buy EV’s.

New Mexico fails to win race for “hydrogen hub.”

Big-spenders in Santa Fe are looking for massive spending growth.

New Mexico has a welfare problem.

NY Times story highlights New Mexico’s education woes.

In the wake of his post on Sen. Tallman’s opinion piece in ABQ Journal he had a lengthy conversation with the Senator. Paul shares a bit about the article and his conversation.

New Mexico is an exporter of college graduates.

Arizona’s ESA’s are being taken up by those in disadvantaged communities:

Amid service cuts some at ABQ City Council want to make”free” bus fares permanent.

Local elections are very important in New Mexico and early voting begins in earnest on October 21st (click for a list of locations). Turnout  in these races tends to be very low, so it is  critical to  get to the polls and vote.

There are city council races in some areas of the City. While RGF cannot endorse candidates we have worked with the HELP coalition which does that here. HELP is a coalition of businesses and pro-economic growth people who want to move Albuquerque forward on crime and the economy. You can listen to a podcast with Carol Wight of the NM Restaurant Association (with HELP)  about important issues in the City. 

Here is a list of candidates for APS school board. The union DID endorse candidates and you can bet that anyone endorsed by the union is NOT an education reformer. 

Sample ballots for Bernalillo County are available here.

RGF has consistently advocated for “no” votes on bonds because your property taxes WILL go down if a bond is voted down. Rarely in recent memory have bonds been voted down.

Santa Fe voters will face a proposal to levy a 3% tax on the sale of homes in the City sold for over $1 million. As RGF has explained previously this is a terrible idea that will not solve or even seriously address the City’s housing situation.

The City of Albuquerque’s troubled bus system is (like the State) in the process of “electrifying its fleet. After they failed with “Build Your Dreams” the City went with fossil fueled buses, but Mayor Keller hasn’t given up on his dreams of “electrifying” the City’s bus fleet.

The City has 5 buses in its fleet and is planning to purchase another 20 from the bankrupt Proterra bus company by 2026. There are inherent risks involved with buying expensive and complicated products from bankrupt companies. According to a report from the Heartland Institute the bus manufacturing company has caused serious problems in Wyoming:

Eight electric buses purchased by Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit (START) have broken down, and when any of the vehicles will be up and running again is anyone’s guess. Help is not going to be on its way anytime soon because California-based Proterra, the company that manufactured the defective buses, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Once a darling of the Biden administration’s vaunted “energy transition,” the company cannot say when – if ever – spare parts will come to the rescue.

It would seem that the City might want to find another company to provide its buses (electric or not). Perhaps Proterra’s sorry track record will convince them?

New Mexico politicians have a conflict of interest. Generous welfare benefits get them votes and buy political loyalty, but as the LFC notes (indirectly), these generous benefits also hold our State by reducing workforce participation. The LFC doesn’t come out and say it, but how else do people who don’t work support themselves?

As the chart below from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity highlights (though its purpose is to highlight differences between California and Florida), New Mexico’s welfare spending is higher than any state besides New York (which has a much higher cost of living).

RGF has certainly criticized New Mexico’s failing education system. We stand by that but also note that if there is a culture of welfare dependency backed up by generous welfare benefits, the perceived need to get an education is reduced. 

Reducing the generosity of NM’s welfare benefits is a hard conversation that needs to be had.

The Biden Energy Department has named a total of 7 so-called “hydrogen hubs” which will split a total of $7 billion in federal funding to “accelerate the commercial-scale deployment of hydrogen infrastructure.

The Rio Grande Foundation is agnostic on hydrogen as a technology although we are certainly not excited about $7 billion in federal spending for it. Somewhat surprisingly, despite New Mexico’s oil and gas infrastructure and resources combined with “blue state” politics (including Governor and its entire Congressional delegation), the Biden Administration did not award one of its hubs to New Mexico.

Rio Grande Foundation has committed itself to opposing the Gov’s attempt to eliminate gas vehicles in New Mexico. We need New Mexicans from all over the state to send a message to the Environmental Improvement Board through our website: KeepYourCarsNM.com.

Please take a minute or two to go to KeepYourCarsNM to join us in pushing back against the Gov.’s latest overreach. Please share this information with at least FIVE New Mexico friends! Together, we can defeat MLG.

Paul talks energy policy and its impacts with Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance.

The impact of the Middle East war on energy prices.

Kathleen Sgamma sets the record straight in a House of Representatives hearing.

The impact of Biden administration policies on energy in New Mexico and nationwide.

Conflict issues related to Secretary Deb Haaland’s daughter and her political activities.

Access to oil and gas under attack on federal and state lands in New Mexico.

The problems being created by the rapid push for electric vehicles.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham continues to push her mandate which would force New Mexicans to buy electric vehicles. But, that effort at odds with new polling just published by Yahoo Finance. You can explore the results below, but 57 percent of Americans expressed an aversion to buying an EV in the near future. That compares to about 31 percent who are likely. or somewhat likely to buy one.

According to the article associated with the, “70% of those over the age of 65 would not (buy an EV), along with 60% of respondents that had an annual income below $50,000. The elderly and low-income are two large groups in New Mexico meaning that EV’s are likely even less popular here than in some other states.

You can submit comments on the EIB’s proposed mandates directly to the EIB through: pamela.jones@state.nm.us

Even in stories that aren’t technically about New Mexico our State’s education policy failures are highlighted for all to see. The chart below is from the New York Times Morning Update. The story actually highlights the success of schools managed by the Department of Defense.

There are a few pertinent quotes from the article that are worthwhile:

Perhaps the most important lesson is that the schools are excelling not by discovering some new secret about education. They are doing what decades of research has suggested is successful.

Consistent with military culture, they set high standards and create a disciplined classroom culture.

During the pandemic, the military’s schools reopened relatively quickly — and it’s clear that extended closures were terrible for children.

More of their families have two married parents than is the case nationwide. By definition, at least one parent in each military family is employed.

With few exceptions Democrats have controlled New Mexico politics since 1930. It is therefore rather ironic to see the following opinion piece from Democrat Sen. Bill Tallman. In the article he decries the State’s (read his party’s) lack of “strategic planning.”

I provide a few of HIS bullet points and briefly discuss them:

• Replace oil and gas revenues: While Tallman cites a study claiming that revenues from oil and gas will start to decline after 2030 that remains to be seen. The New Mexico Legislature SHOULD work to diversify the economy and the Rio Grande Foundation has plenty of ideas for that, but neither Tallman nor his Party have expressed any interest. Worse, we have been in an oil and gas boom for several years and have almost nothing to show for it.
• Education: Tallman argues that education reforms are implemented in a “piecemeal fashion.” Of course our panelists at the recent OAKNM education conference have put forth numerous ideas (private choice and Mississippi’s model) with no interest expressed by Democrats in the Legislature (with a few tiny exceptions).
• Capital outlay: Tallman is spot-on here. New Mexico’s capital outlay process is a total disaster and driven by no data or even needs-based assessments. Again, Tallman’s own Democratic Party controls Santa Fe. Why not put forth a detailed reform agenda?

We commented on a recent by New Mexico’s Legislative Finance Committee that considered problems with the State’s economy. One of the problems we face is the quality of our workforce.

Sadly, costly initiatives like “free” college are not likely to succeed in improving New Mexico’s workforce because we lose so many college graduates (on net). As the map below highlights New Mexico lost 24% more college graduates than it attracted in 2021. You can see the full story and interactive map at KRQE Channel 13’s excellent report on the LFC report.

Even before the Gov. instituted “free” college New Mexico was among the biggest-spending states on higher education with little to show for it.

New Mexico remains in them middle of its largest budget boom ever thanks to record oil and gas production and revenues. And, according to a new article in the Santa Fe New Mexican the appetite for bigger government shows no sign of being satiated.

Agencies representing about 44% of the state’s general fund spending are requesting an additional $890 million for fiscal year 2025, an average increase of 20.5%, according to a recent report by the Legislative Finance Committee.

The story went on to quote Senate Finance Committee Chair George Muñoz as saying, “My cautionary tale is we’ve had humongous increases, almost doubling the budget 15 to 20% a year for the last couple of years, and it’s unsustainable from here forward.”

As Gov. Lujan Grisham’s plans to have her appointed Environmental Improvement Board issue regulation that would force vastly increased numbers of electric vehicles on New Mexicans, it is worth remembering that EV’s also rely on traditional fossil fuels.

Curiously, as this and other news stories reported recently, the world’s largest EV charging station (Harris Ranch which is based in California and sports 98 bays) is fueled by diesel generators.

According to one of numerous articles about the Harris Ranch facility, “Superchargers charge vehicles up to the 80% sweet spot in as little as 20 minutes, but to provide that kind of power for nearly 100 bays takes something solar can’t provide — diesel generators.”

You can submit comments on the EIB’s proposed mandates directly to the EIB through: pamela.jones@state.nm.us

The ABQ Journal had an excellent opinion piece by former Rio Grande Sun editor Robert Trapp (no conservative) decrying the Gov.’s proposed mandates on his community.

Former collegiate swimmer and activist for keeping women’s sports exclusive to women Riley Gaines was in Albuquerque to speak to a group sponsored through University of New Mexico (the talk was actually held at Kiva Auditorium downtown.

Sadly, as the tweet below from Ms.  Gaines notes, the University has asked her to pay $10,000 due to the high level of police presence needed to control the leftist protestors. A follow up conversation with a media outlet that questioned the University on the matter resulted in the claim that the price tag would be less than $10,000.

It doesn’t matter. Conservative speakers cannot be held to a different standard than their leftist counterparts because those same leftists represent. a violent threat to anyone who counters their radical ideology.

Sadly, NMSU was recently pressured by radical left-wing politicians to NOT host conservative speakers.

The Rio Grande Foundation has long opposed New Mexico’s film subsidies, so it was highly gratifying to have our perspective backed up by the Legislative Finance Committee’s report which found the subsidies to be ineffective at fostering economic growth.

KOAT Channel 7 did a story on the issue and gave RGF the best opportunity to explain some of the problems with New Mexico’s generous film subsidies we’ve ever had. Check it out here or below: