On the latest Tipping Point New Mexico interview Paul talks to Larry Behrens of Power the Future. Larry and Paul discuss current energy issues in New Mexico and nationally including the rising price of energy across all fuel sources, the unfolding crisis in Europe this winter, MLG’s “net zero” plans, and the problems facing New Mexico and its electrical grid this coming summer when San Juan Generating Station shuts down. Energy issues are always critical, but are truly “top of mind” these days. You don’t want to miss this conversation!

For starters, it is worth clarifying that utilities LIKE many green mandates because they get to ramp up electricity prices for all those “renewables: which means bigger profits for them and their companies.

That said, those energy companies STILL need to provide reliable electricity. So, when the head of Duke Energy, one of America’s largest utility’s says, “Net-Zero emissions can’t be achieved without nuclear power,” it is worth paying attention.

Gov. MLG wants the Democrat-controlled New Mexico Legislature to adopt legislation during the 2022 session to make New Mexico “net zero” CO2 emissions by 2050.  Did she discuss nuclear energy? No, of course not. Instead, thanks to New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act, passed in 2019 at the behest of our Governor, PNM is in the process of abandoning nuclear and will get out of leases it currently has with the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona in 2023 and 2024.

Duke Energy’s CEO further elaborated on the issue, saying, “I want to keep that nuclear fleet operating as long as I possibly can because I don’t have an alternative of a carbon-free resource that runs 95% of the time, which is what nuclear represents today.”

The Rio Grande Foundation has been active in encouraging written testimony from New Mexicans regarding the Public Education Department’s controversial new social studies curriculum (click for more information or to send your own comments). Whether these standards are embedded with “Critical Race Theory” or not is open to debate, but there is no question that numerous CRT “buzzwords” and concepts appear in the new guidelines.

Separately, but at the very same meeting, the PED was supposed to collect comments on a proposal that would make it MUCH more difficult for elected school board members to defend themselves against being replaced by the Secretary (often acting on behalf of their boss, the Gov.). The proposal, if adopted, will force board members to obtain and pay for legal representation themselves (click to comment on THAT proposal), thus making it nearly impossible for them to defend against State overreach.

We have JUST received word that PED has CANCELED the public meeting and will be holding the meeting on Zoom only. Clearly they want to be able to control the meeting which can be done much more easily online. Read the revised notice here including Zoom info:

NOTICE OF CHANGES TO RULE HEARING

The New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) gives notice of time and location changes to a public hearing scheduled Friday, November 12, 2021, published in Issue 18 of the New Mexico Register on September 28, 2021.

The PED gives notice that it will conduct a public hearing on Friday, November 12, 2021 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (MDT) via Zoom for

• the proposed repeal of 30.6 NMAC, Suspension of Authority of a Local School Board, Superintendent, or Principal, to be replaced with 6.30.6 NMAC, Suspension of Authority of a Local School Board;
• the proposed new rule 60.11 NMAC, Required Training Program for School District Personnel, School Volunteers, and Contractors; and
• the proposed repeal and replace of 29.11 NMAC, Social Studies.

Zoom Information.

• Link: https://zoom.us/j/95261645812?pwd=ejNMZ2Fyb2xsVWFhT2VTMWRabnRKQT09
• Passcode: Policy2021
• Or One tap mobile:
  • US: +16699006833,,95261645812# or +12532158782,,95261645812# or Telephone: Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 929 205 6099 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799
• Webinar ID: 952 6164 5812
• International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/adcuJ7c7Py

Public Comment.  Interested parties may provide comment at the public hearing or may submit written comments by mail to John Sena, Policy Division, New Mexico Public Education Department, 300 Don Gaspar Avenue, Room 121, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, by electronic mail to rule.feedback@state.nm.us, or by fax to (505) 827-6520.  Written comments must be received no later than 5 p.m. (MDT) on Friday, November 12, 2021. The PED encourages the early submission of written comments. The public comment period is from Tuesday, September 28, 2021 to Friday, November 12, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. (MDT).

The PED will review all feedback received during the public comment period and issue communication regarding a final decision at a later date.

Copies of the proposed rules may be accessed through the page titled, “Rule Notification,” on the PED’s website at http://webnew.ped.state.nm.us/bureaus/policy-innovation-measurement/rule-notification/, or may be obtained from John Sena at (505) 570-7816 during regular business hours.

Individuals with disabilities who require the above information in an alternative format or need any form of auxiliary aid to attend or participate in the public hearing are asked to contact John Sena at (505) 570-7816 as soon as possible before the date set for the public hearing.  The PED requires at least 10 calendar days advance notice to provide any special accommodations requested.

Sometimes it REALLY is as simple as Economics 101.

NM’s unemployment rate drops but remains 5th highest in the nation.

Top 11 lowest states have GOP Governors, bottom 8 have Democrats.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) admits it funded risky “gain of function” research at Wuhan lab. Biden Administration is using relief money to push schools to keep masks on in schools. 5,000 New Mexicans have now died. 

Heinrich’s effort to ban natural gas appliances is based on faulty study. MLG announces legislation making NM “Net Zero” by 2050 at New Mexico Climate Conference at the Roundhouse. Meanwhile, China is mining and using record amounts of coal.

New Mexico’s Secretary of State endorses MLG.

PED Secretary Steinhaus needs to show us the data on several controversial moves.

As of October 18, 2021, the Spaceport has now been open for a decade. 

Alec Baldwin involved in deadly shooting on movie set in New Mexico. This incident created international news. New Mexico’s film industry is heavily subsidized of course.

New Mexico’s unemployment rate in September remains elevated at 5th-highest in the nation. And, New Mexico continues to exceed all of its neighbors’ rates by a considerable margin.

According to an RGF analysis, each of the bottom 8 states (worst unemployment) has a Democrat governor. Each of the 11 lowest unemployment rate states has a Republican governor. Due to the outsized role of COVID policy in driving unemployment rates and the near total dominance of governors, this is the “current” context behind “red” and “blue” distinctions.

Even in “blue” Albuquerque, devoid as it is of energy production and associated workers, “climate change” lags far behind other important issues in terms of how concerned voters are about them.

As seen below and in today’s Albuquerque Journal, the crime rate more than DOUBLES climate change as an issue voters are ‘very concerned’ about. Homelessness and the low quality of schools in the City are also of far greater concern.

Ironically, of the issues polled only COVID lags climate change as an issue of extreme concern. While it appears that Mayor Keller is going to cruise to victory, it is interesting that Gov. Lujan Grisham has most actively engaged on COVID and climate change. Crime and especially the quality of public schools have not been her priorities. Seems like a roadmap for candidates.

On this week’s podcast conversation, Paul talks to Michael Leach, SIOR. Michael is the Founder and Owner of Sycamore Associates, a commercial real estate firm based in Albuquerque that works primarily in the industrial sector.

Paul and Michael discuss the development of Albuquerque and the relationship between various businesses in the ABQ Metro and how that allows them to serve clients statewide. They also discuss the role public policies play including the permitting process, crime, taxation, and the State’s education system.

This is an informative conversation you won’t want to miss!

The following opinion piece appeared in the Las Cruces Sun News on Sunday, October 24, 2021.

Kurt Steinhaus has been on the job for just a month or so, but he has already put forth policies and ideas regarding New Mexico’s education system that leave us scratching our heads.

We all want our children to do better in school so that they are prepared to be productive workers and informed citizens. That is not an easy task and it is made even more difficult by the pandemic and the government’s reaction to it.

The first question is why PED has chosen not to release standardized testing data that it has from March of 2020 prior to the pandemic. Yes, only 10% of students took the test, but there is still useful information to be gleaned from the 10% that took it. That’s especially true since there will be no data available at all for 2021. We know New Mexico students began the pandemic behind their peers in other states, but New Mexico families and our education leaders deserve to have at least some insights into where things stood right before the pandemic.

More bizarre are comments Steinhaus made in early October at a Legislative Education Study Committee. When asked what New Mexico would need to do to “make New Mexico teacher salaries competitive” he claimed the state would “have to double teacher salaries.”

That is quite simply false. According to the latest data from the National Education Association, New Mexico’s average teacher pay is $54,256 annually (ranked 32nd in the nation). The highest paid teachers on average are found in New York where they make $87,069. Doubling New Mexico teacher salaries would not “make them competitive.” It would make them by far the highest paid in the nation (at nearly $110,000) in a state that has much lower taxes and living costs than does New York and others with high salaries.

Setting aside whether increasing teacher pay is warranted or effective at increasing student performance, there is simply no data backing up the idea that New Mexico should double teacher pay. Perhaps Steinhaus is not familiar with what New Mexico teachers make or past efforts to recruit and offer enhanced pay to high performing teachers.

And then there are the state’s revised social studies standards which clearly were “in progress” during (prior Secretary) Ryan Stewart’s time at PED but were recently released under Steinhaus. Whether you can call the new, much more prescriptive standards “critical race theory” or not is open to question, but there are concerning elements to be found in the new standards.

Throughout the new curriculum there is a focus not simply on geography, human development and historical facts and events and their relevance for us today. If adopted, the curriculum will intently focus on differences, rather than the similarities among various racial and ethnic groups. Talk of inequity (unequal outcome for different groups) will replace equality under the law. The general trend in the new standards is away from presenting the facts and asking students to come to their own conclusions to instead hammering approved beliefs on everything from gun control and “destruction and occupation” of the Americas by the Spaniards into students.

There is currently a public comment period on these standards going on through Nov. 12. Please look at them and submit your own comments today.

Secretary Steinhaus does not have an easy job and we understand that. But, our schools need a focused, data-driven approach to improve student outcomes. If paying teachers more will improve outcomes, let’s see the data. And rather than teaching watered-down CRT, let’s focus on teaching basic historical events and not spinning them to make America look like a hive of inequality and injustice.

Paul J. Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility.

As we’ve noted National Review and elsewhere Sen. Martin Heinrich is one of the “ringleaders” of efforts to get rid of natural gas appliances like heaters, stoves, and hot water heaters in homes.

Heinrich is primarily doing this because he doesn’t like traditional energy sources, but he sometimes justifies his efforts based on supposed issues with indoor air pollution predominantly caused by cooking on gas stoves. 

Well, a new report doesn’t just call into question Heinrich’s facts, it dismantles them.  Here are some choice quotes:

Conducted by Catalyst Environmental Solutions, the Oct. 13 study contends the previous analysis inflated the risk of using gas stoves and other appliances through “incorrect and misleading comparisons” of emissions and current indoor pollution standards.

The report pointed out “several significant flaws in the UCLA Report that undermine its use in decision-making on the topic of the health effects of natural gas stoves and ovens.”

In addition to misleading comparisons between natural gas and emissions standards, the UCLA report neglected air quality issues from the food being cooked, unanticipated consequences of replacing natural gas and made other assumptions, the Catalyst Environmental Solutions report said.

Once again, Heinrich who desperately wants to end fossil fuels, is trying to manipulate science to support his radical agenda.

According to Fox News, the Biden Administration is requiring school systems  comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance in order to obtain coronavirus relief funding.

Furthermore, yesterday, CDC director Rache Walensky said that her agency would continue to require students to wear masks in classrooms regardless of how many students receive the vaccine which will soon be available to 5-11 year olds. 

So, we have a federal government that seems hellbent on keeping kids masked in school through 2023 and they are using our tax dollars to “encourage”/bribe complicity with those mask mandates (see the quote below). 

MLG extends indoor mask mandate through November 12. New Mexico is one of small handful of states that has an indoor mask mandate. Here is a map. New Mexico’s medical system is now in “crisis” mode. What is happening? 

Disappointing National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores from the “Nation’s Report Card” test which was given pre-pandemic are out. Notably, results from the assessment show widening score gaps between higher-performing and lower-performing students, with the changes driven by declines among lower-performing students – a trend that’s emerged across other NAEP exams and grade levels in recent years, including in mathematics and reading at grades four and eight.

State fair attendance was way down this year. 

Hearings on Four Corners Power Plant & PNM’s planned abandonment include some interesting takes, especially from environmental groups.  Rumors of coal’s death are greatly exaggerated. Prices are skyrocketing as utilities embrace coal in order to keep the lights on.

Were you appalled by the efforts of Gov. Lujan Grisham and her Secretary of Education to replace the entire Floyd, NM school board for having the temerity to stand up in opposition to her school mask mandate? I was.

The Floyd issue is tied up in court, but quietly, the PED is proposing some rule changes to make it  more difficult for local shool boards to defend themselves against the PED by limiting the types of attorneys they can use to defend themselves and forcing school board members to pay for them by themselves (as opposed to the district).

You can download the proposed rule on this issue here.

PED is NOW accepting public comments and will do so until November 12, 2021 at 5 p.m. (MDT). There will be a public hearing  Friday, November 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (MDT) at Mabry Hall in Santa Fe.

All written rule feedback should be submitted to:

• Email: rule.feedback@state.nm.us
• Fax: 505-827-6520
• Mail: Policy Division, Public Education Department, 300 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501

Below is a brief discussion of some of the important changes PED is requesting. The proposed rule is: 6.30.6 NMAC, Suspension of Authority of a Local School Board:

1. The proposed rule makes it explicitly clear that while a local school board  member has a right to counsel, the school board member must use a legal counsel that is independent of the local school board’s counsel.  The current rule only says a local school board member has a right to counsel, no restrictions are provided.
2. Similarly, the proposed rule states that a local school board member must pay their own expenses related to their hearing defense and that the local school districts shall not pay for such expenses.  The current rule makes no reference as to who should or should not pay the legal expenses.  (I cannot recall if the Floyd school members paid for their own legal costs or if the local school district paid.)

For the record, the Rio Grande Foundation DOES NOT support vaccine mandates. But, basketball season is coming soon and Gov. Lujan Grisham has extended her universal mask mandate into the upcoming basketball season. New Mexico is just one of six states with a “universal” indoor mandate. This means basketball fans will be wearing masks for at least their first two games.

But the Gov. has also imposed various COVID vaccine mandates as well:

• UNM has a vaccine mandate in place for all students and employees alike;
• MLG imposed a vaccine mandate for the State Fair despite the fact that many Fair events occur outdoors;
• MLG expressed sour grapes about the “failure” of the International Balloon Fiesta to impose a vaccine mandate.

Clearly, the Gov. has the POWER to impose a universal vaccine mandate on Lobo and Aggie fans, but WILL she? We don’t know the answer to that question yet. Having attended numerous Lobo basketball games, RGF’s president can attest to the fact that when “The Pit” is full, it is truly “packed.” It goes without saying that all basketball arenas are completely indoor venues with people in far closer proximity to each other than at the Fair or Balloon Fiesta.

The quote above, often attributed to Mark Twain may now be applied to coal. Reports of its demise are vastly overstated.

See the chart below which is provided by the website Trading Economics. Over the past YEAR alone, the price of coal has risen an astonishing 318.85%.

This is due to the widespread energy crunch happening mostly in Europe but also in Asia. It means that when push comes to shove people all over the globe would rather embrace an “outmoded,” “dirty,” fuel than go without power thanks to unreliable and inadequate “renewables.” It also means that CO2 emissions will rise and purported agreements to reduce them aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

Shockingly, at least some in Europe, believe that the way out of this crisis is to go further down the “renewable” path. The UK has just confirmed a contract for 16 modular nuclear reactors nationwide so at least SOMEONE in Europe is thinking clearly.

Unless you travel around the nation on a regular basis it may be hard to understand just how restrictive New Mexico is relative to other states on the COVID 19 issue. The following map from MultiState illustrates the situation quite clearly. Only six states in the entire country (not including “bluest of the blue California and New York) have true statewide mask mandates indoors that include vaccinated individuals.

Amazingly Michelle Lujan Grisham’s top health advisor has said that masks may be mandated for years to come in New Mexico. 

The following was written by OAK NM’s Edwin Aybar Lopez. It appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on October 10, 2021.

This fall, voters in the Albuquerque Public Schools service area have some important issues to consider when they vote. For starters, it has been well-documented that in each of the four seats up for election this fall, none of the incumbents will appear on the ballot. In other words, the APS school board is in for some significant changes, no matter what the results are.

What that change looks like will be up to the voters.

My organization, OAKNM, sent surveys to all candidates for school board in APS and numerous other larger school districts across the state to ask for candidates’ views on big issues facing school boards. In Albuquerque, these included everything from splitting APS into multiple districts to masking kids and the role of charter schools.

Whether candidates completed these and other surveys or not, there are two clear sets of candidates: those who support and receive support from the unions and those who don’t. Typically, union support has been the deciding factor in local school board races, but, with this election occurring at the same time as the Albuquerque mayoral and City Council elections – not to mention the United soccer stadium vote – everyone expects higher turnout than seen in the past.

As an education reformer, this makes me happy. Given everything our kids have gone through over the past 18 months, our education system, already ranked at the bottom, failed our children completely. Of course, we don’t know just how badly because the state’s standardized test for 2020 and 2021 was administered to only a fraction of the student population, or not at all. Estimates vary, but we’ve seen figures for lost time ranging from a few weeks to more than a year.

Do you believe the situation was handled well? Do you think it was appropriate for unions to play an outsized role in reopening, masking and even vaccination policies during the pandemic? Are you concerned that the Sheryl Williams Stapleton scandal is only the tip of the iceberg? If so, you need to vote in this election and get yourself educated on the issues facing the district.

In addition to the school board races, APS has quietly placed (a $200 million general obligation bond and) a property tax question on ballots. The question on the ballot asks for a tax levy of $3.838 per $1,000 of net taxable value on residential property and $4.344 on non-residential. The question(s are) with billions of stimulus money flowing into New Mexico schools, students fleeing APS in droves and the Legislature sitting on “more money than they know what to do with,” per the Senate Finance Committee chairman, why is APS asking for (more)?

Here in Albuquerque and across New Mexico, education reform is on the ballot. Voters need to get educated about the candidates and issues that will, at long last, pull our state out of last place. Get out to vote and take a friend or relative with you.

Opportunity for All Kids New Mexico, www.oaknm.org, is an organization dedicated to reforming New Mexico’s education system.

On this week’s podcast conversation, Paul sits down with Louie Sanchez a Republican running to be Gov. of New Mexico. The conversation covers Louie’s background growing up in Albuquerque, his business efforts, and ultimately focus on the challenges facing New Mexico’s current leadership and what he’d do to turn the State around.

Tune in to this informative podcast!  Louie’s campaign website can be found here. 

Southwest cancels thousands of flights over the weekend as vaccine mandate kicks in; The 100+ person mandate has not been formally implemented yet, but businesses including Southwest Airlines are using it as cover to impose the vaccine mandate on their workers.

Energy crisis Analysts at Deutsche Bank noted that in Europe prices are up fivefold, while in the U.S. and Asia prices are about 1.5 times higher. In Europe, the price spike in natural gas is equivalent to if oil were trading around $200 per barrel. “The importance of these moves on inflation, growth and external accounts are not to be underestimated,” the firm wrote in a note to clients. “These price moves are a big deal.”

Coal and oil prices are also jumping. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, topped $80 per barrel on Friday for the first time since November 2014. International benchmark Brent crude, meanwhile, traded at its highest level since 2018. Analysts say that elevated natural gas prices could even prompt utilities to swap the fuel for oil. In New Mexico this means even more money flowing into the state.

California took another step toward its goal of ridding the state of all gas-powered engines thanks to a new bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday. The new law will ban the sale of all off-road, gas-powered engines, including generators, lawn equipment, pressure washers, chainsaws, weed trimmers, and even golf carts. Under the new law, these machines must be zero-emissions, meaning they will have to be either battery-powered or plug-in.

Trever cartoon electric hot air balloons

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s campaign paid an additional $87,500 as part of a settlement with an ex-staffer who accused her of sexual mistreatment, bringing the total dollar amount to $150,000.

This week RGF President Paul Gessing had an opportunity to provide (School) Choice Media’s Story of the Day. The story was regarding a student in a liberal part of Wyoming (Laramie) that was arrested and pulled out of the school in handcuffs for refusing to wear a mask.

You can watch the short story below.

“Student Arrested After Standoff Over Laramie High School Mask Requirement” – @PGessing of @RioGrandeFndn has the #StoryOfTheDay.#SchoolMaskMandates pic.twitter.com/EsMq3sOezb

— Choice Media (@ChoiceMediatv) October 12, 2021

After being canceled completely in 2020 the New Mexico State Fair returned in 2021. Unfortunately thanks to the last minute imposition of a vaccine mandate by Gov. Lujan Grisham, attendance at the Fair plummeted as you can see below. The following data were provided as part of a Rio Grande Foundation request for public records.

New Mexico State Fair attendance for 2018-2021.

2018: 504,445

2019: 472,415

2020: 0

2021: 275,467

A few months back Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing noted that Sen. Martin Heinrich “is coming for” your gas appliances. If you follow Heinrich on Twitter you can see that Heinrich continues to push for the elimination of gas from homes.

Very recently, California took up Heinrich’s mantle by banning gas-powered equipment using small off-road engines, a broad category that includes generators, lawn equipment and pressure washers (see bill here). California is a state often emulated by Gov.. MLG which has also struggled frequently to keep electricity flowing.

The following cartoon from John Trever of the Albuquerque Journal over the weekend highlights how ONE New Mexico tradition might not work so well if the Heinrich vision is implemented. Unfortunately, 2050 is likely too optimistic in terms of the time line given the rapid advance of such radical policies.

Marc and Paul discuss the ongoing debate in Washington over various “infrastructure” bills. They discuss infrastructure and transportation more broadly and how it is funded. Finally, they discuss a new policy brief Marc wrote about America’s freight railroads in which he discusses their tremendous economic impact (including in New Mexico), the fact that these railroads build and maintain their own infrastructure, the Staggers Act which deregulated freight rail 40 years ago, and the Biden Administration’s efforts to reimpose regulation on America’s freight rail network.