According to a new report (details from KRQE Channel 13) children across the United States face serious developmental challenges thanks to COVID lockdowns. As a reminder, New Mexico had some of the harshest and longest lockdowns of any US state. These lockdowns failed to achieve any positive

As KRQE reports:

The survey by Education Week showed 94 percent of teachers of young children say their students have a challenging or much more challenging time listening and following instructions. Eighty-five percent said their kids are struggling more with sharing and cooperating with their peers.

In terms of fine motor skills, 77 percent of educators found young students are having greater difficulties handling pencils, pens and scissors, while 69 percent saw their charges struggling to tie their shoes at higher rates than five years ago.

Critics of MLG’s lockdowns said as much at the time. We AT LEAST would’ve liked to see some legislative debate on the impacts of COVID lockdowns, but MLG took it upon herself to dictate policies and her Democratic flunkies in the Legislature have been unwilling to restore a seat at the table for themselves.

And, while the recent crime spree in Albuquerque  undertaken by an 11 year old undoubtedly has numerous causes, this kid was undoubtedly impacted by COVID. The left which tries to blame everything BUT the perp when it comes to crime simply won’t call out COVID lockdowns as having negative impacts on our children.

According to the Census Bureau New Mexico is one of the poorest states in the nation.

It has zero Fortune 500 companies headquartered within the state. Oil and gas are responsible for about 15% of the State’s economy (GDP).

But, recently, New Mexico’s State Investment Council(SIC) announced  $550 million in investments, much of which will be invested in Europe. The SIC recently announced that IT is having trouble investing all the money available to it due to the flood of oil and gas revenues.

New Mexico has both massive general fund surpluses AND massive “permanent funds” which are outlined in the New Mexico Constitution and provide additional money to public schools and the like. Simple policy decisions made in Santa Fe could reduce/eliminate taxes on citizens and businesses alike, address New Mexico’s flagging education outcomes, improve roads, reduce crime, and more. Sadly, this is not happening.

The money is being spent (often wasted) by government or being held onto by government in the form of future “investments.” New Mexico government is being flooded with cash but you would have no idea if you lived here or visited from another, better-run state.

The following opinion piece appeared at KRWG and in several other publications.

Left, right, or center, economists tend to agree that “corporate welfare” is not good public policy or good economics. A recent Rasmussen poll found that approximately 65% of Americans (regardless or political philosophy or affiliation) oppose corporate welfare. Definitions of what constitutes such “welfare” vary, but generally relate to policies that involve politicians picking winners and losers in the economy.

Sadly, New Mexico has a long history of picking “losers” and one of those losers appears to be in its death throes. Specifically, New Mexicans have spent hundreds-of-millions to construct, expand, staff, and maintain Spaceport America in Southern New Mexico.

While the facility has been used for other space-related purposes, it was expressly built to house Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic for its space tourism business. Few examples of corporate welfare in American history have been more speculative. Sadly, after having been open for nearly 15 years and with just a handful of space tourism launches under its belt, Virgin Galactic laid off 185 workers and ceased tourism launches in November of 2023 pending development of a new fleet of vehicles that will (hopefully) help the company turn a profit.

Wall Street is not optimistic about the company’s prospects and the share price (SPCE) which at one time hit the $60 mark per share has plummeted to below $1 per share. An extended period at below $1 could get Virgin Galactic’s stock delisted. In the absence of Virgin Galactic at the facility Spaceport America takes on all the trappings of a costly “white elephant” in the New Mexico desert.

Sadly, there is not much that can be done regarding the “world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.” Viable uses for the facility which (by design) is far from New Mexico’s population centers are limited.

While this is an example of past corporate welfare gone bust, it is not alone. Under then-Gov. Bill Richardson New Mexico spent $100 million on Eclipse Aviation only to see it go bankrupt. New Mexicans must work to prevent future losses from future corporate welfare schemes.

The next big “loser” in the making is Maxeon Solar. The Singapore-based solar cell manufacturing company is in line to receive a mind-blowing $2.4 billion industrial revenue bond and $20 million in LEDA funding for the facility (courtesy of New Mexico taxpayers). This is in addition to myriad federal subsidies and state/local mandates that favor the solar industry.

Even with Joe Biden in the White House shoveling billions of dollars at the “renewable” industry, Maxeon Solar’s stock price (MAXN) has plummeted. In early 2021 the company touted a stock price of nearly $58 per share. Maxeon’s share price as of early May 2024 is about $2.00.

It is hard to imagine the “renewable energy” gravy train getting any more generous in a second Biden term and it will likely be reduced if Donald Trump makes it back to the White House. Is New Mexico setting itself up for yet another costly corporate welfare failure? It certainly seems like it.

Sadly, corporate welfare is attractive to politicians of both parties. But in Democrat-dominated New Mexico it seems that Democrats will not call their own out on these unpopular giveaways. Recently, the New Mexico Environment Department announced it was giving United Parcel Service (UPS) nearly $500,000 for the company to buy “clean” delivery trucks.

UPS is one of the world’s largest and most profitable companies. They can certainly afford to buy their own delivery trucks without the help of New Mexico’s taxpayers. Sadly, our politicians are busy spending our money on their priorities rather than working to improve our State.

New Mexico is the third-poorest state in the Union. Our politicians’ propensity to support corporations with our money (instead of returning it to us and improving our state’s business climate) is one of many reasons for this. Only the voters can force change in New Mexico that brings wealth and prosperity.

Paul 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. 

School choice is sweeping the nation. Arguably the most prominent national spokesperson and expert on allowing education dollars to follow students is Corey DeAngelis.

DeAngelis has a new book, The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools.

Better still, Corey DeAngelis is coming to Alamogordo. The Rio Grande Foundation and its education project Opportunity for All Kids NM is hosting a talk and book signing on the evening of Monday, June 17.

Corey DeAngelis
Monday, June 17
6PM-7:30PM
Flickenger Center for Performing Arts

Reserve your seat today. Boxed meals are available for sale ahead of the event, and Corey’s books are available for purchase online and on-site. New Mexico is in desperate need of education reform and school choice. Find out what is and what needs to happen in Alamogordo and New Mexico at this important event.

School choice is sweeping the nation. Arguably the most prominent national spokesperson and expert on allowing education dollars to follow students is Corey DeAngelis.

For nearly a decade and for MANY reasons, New Mexico’s Legislature has moved considerably to the political left. New Mexico has been controlled by Democrats since 1930 and there has NEVER been a “conservative” majority over that time period. In fact, there has only been one Democrat that I’d even consider an economic “conservative” in my 18 years at Rio Grande Foundation.

So, with 10 moderate Democrats having opposed paid family leave in 2024 and Gov. Lujan Grisham and a host of “progressives” coming after them, voters decided to move the Legislature even further left.

As Marjorie Childress at NM Indepth writes, “Four of the 11 Democratic state representatives who voted against the Paid Family and Medical Leave act this year — Anthony Allison, Ambrose Castellano, Harry Garcia, Willie Madrid — won’t be returning to the Legislature, with the winners of their seats in the primary election all endorsed by progressive organizations.

The losses of those moderates (under no circumstances are they economically “conservative”) includes further losses for moderates like former Sen. Clemente Sanchez to a “progressive.” Further losses include heterodox senators Daniel Ivey-Soto and Bill O’Neill. Neither of these men would be considered anything but “progressives,” but they sometimes bucked the establishment in their party which was enough for them to be targeted.

So, based on these results (and unless the GOP eats into Democrat majorities in November) New Mexicans (thanks to Democrat voters and various well-funded left-wing candidates) New Mexico’s Legislature will be even FURTHER to the left next year than it already is.

The Gov. recently spoke to a business group (NAIOP) luncheon. You can find an article from the Santa Fe New Mexican discussing her remarks.

For starters, MLG LOVES to tout all the things New Mexico government is doing. She LOVES to take the credit even if the oil and gas industry is what is supplying the financial largesse. She doesn’t like to discuss the fact that all of her priorities are the result of oil and gas money. Sadly, MLG reiterates the “New Mexico is poor” canard. The people are poor, but the state has plenty of money.

The Sun Zia line is a fascinating item. The power lines are designed to transport NM produced wind to Arizona and California. There will certainly be construction jobs created, but the idea that this is some kind of win for New Mexico’s economy is half-baked at best.

New Mexico’s education system is indeed terrible, but MLG has completely refused to own up to her serious mistakes during COVID (like keeping schools closed for over a year). Nothing she is doing now will have major positive impacts on education outcomes, that’s why she transitions the discussion to “free college.”

The Gov. discusses the need for housing and (to her credit) even mentions permitting and zoning issues, but offers no specifics. What she fails to address is how her own policies are raising housing costs.

Finally, MLG addresses crime. To date she has done nothing to address crime, but has attempted a well-documented gun grab. We’ll see what her agenda looks like for the special session in July. She seems to be talking about some reasonable ideas, but we won’t know until we see the particulars (and whether “progressives” in the Legislature will go for them).

The Gov. SHOULD be talking about serious tax reforms like shifting the GRT to a sales tax and reducing rates, reducing income taxes, eliminating Social Security taxes and taxes on military pensions. She SHOULD be embracing school choice AND Mississippi-style education reforms. Sadly, she won’t do any of those things.

Back in mid-April in this space I wrote about the solar company Maxeon which is receiving massive subsidies from both the Biden Administration and New Mexico taxpayers and how the company’s stock price had been plummeting. Maxeon stock has continued its downward trajectory. Its 52-week high was $32.58 per share, and its 52-week low was $1.71 per share. The company’s stock was trading at $2.02 on Thursday.

There have been numerous other developments with the company that is set to receive $600 million in government incentives. According to the ABQ Journal, China has recently decided to invest $200 million in the company. Remember, the Biden Administration JUST placed 50% tariffs on Chinese solar panels. Also, according to the article, “Maxeon earlier this month announced it received a noncompliance notice from Nasdaq for delaying the release of its annual report. This week, two shareholder rights law firms announced they were investigating the company for potential violations of federal securities laws.”

Is Maxeon the next Solyndra? At Rio Grande Foundation we believe that businesses should rise and fall on their own merits, not subsidies and mandates (in this case from both the federal government and New Mexico). And, while Maxeon and solar MAY be Joe Biden’s “baby,” is there any reason to believe that their likelihood of success will rise under a prospective Trump Administration?

Rather than pouring money into failing businesses New Mexico should be returning those tax dollars to New Mexicans and New Mexico businesses in the form of tax cuts.

Good news/bad news on jobs for New Mexico.

The NIH director acknowledges that no science supported COVID distancing rules (but we did find an amusing old post from Sen Heinrich on social distancing and how to make a cloth mask).

A proposed move to shift vote threshold to 40% at city council is sensible and quite arguably “pro-democratic.”

Paul recently spoke to KOAT about the City’s $1.4 billion budget.

ABQ to build a 2nd BMX track.

50 year old Albuquerque cigar shop closing its doors.

Are we nearing the end for Virgin Galactic (the company for which New Mexico taxpayers built and maintain Spaceport America). The brainchild of then Gov. Bill Richardson and costing NM taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, the Spaceport was “purpose built” to host Virgin Galactic’s space tourism operations.

Now, according to The Telegraph UK: 

On Wednesday night it said it had received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange that its shares had traded at an average price below $1 – the Wall Street minimum – for 30 days, putting it in potential breach of listing rules.

It means Virgin Galactic is at risk of being kicked off the New York Stock Exchange unless it can boost its share price.

The company last month asked shareholders to approve a “reverse stock split”, in which shares are merged to increase the value of each individual unit. Investors will decide whether to approve the measure at the company’s annual meeting in June.

RGF recently highlighted the fact that New Mexico’s elected officials continue to spend our tax dollars funding losers

The Albuquerque Journal should be commended for its in-depth series on abandoned oil and gas wells throughout New Mexico. This kind of journalism is a dying breed. The bad players past and present in oil and gas need to be held to account, but if plugging and remediating these wells (some of which have been around for decades) is a priority for the State, the industry has generated plenty of money to address the issue.

According to the article there are 1,600 wells that need to be plugged in New Mexico. The total cost of plugging all the wells that need to be plugged is $240 million. That’s a lot of money, but the industry has paid taxes for decades to pay for remediation and restoration of the land. Of course, for the past two years oil and gas has generated surpluses of $3.5 billion. And the industry paid a total of $13.9 billion in taxes in FY 2023 alone. 

So, we applaud the Journal, but we think there are even more pressing needs for in-depth journalism. Here are a few:

1. Why are New Mexicans so poor when they have so much natural wealth around them?
2. Why is New Mexico’s education system an unmitigated disaster despite massive infusions of funding? Are there real solutions?
3. What would it actually take to successfully achieve MLG’s EV mandate? How many chargers? How much electricity? What will the added weight of EV’s do to the roads?
4. How much is the “Energy Transition” really going to cost (including subsidies) and will “renewable” replacements be able to keep the lights on? What are the environmental impacts of those “renewables?”
5. How does the gross receipts tax impact New Mexico businesses and those that might locate here?
6. What could be done with the billions in oil and gas money tied up in numerous government funds? How could those funds be used to bring prosperity to New Mexico?
7. Why does New Mexico perform so poorly on nearly all social and economic measures relative to our neighbors?

What questions do YOU wish New Mexico media outlets would explore? Email us at: info@riograndefoundation.org

Housing costs have risen dramatically since Joe Biden became president. The monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home has more than doubled, from $979 to $2,075. Now, it appears that the Biden Administration (and his allies like Sen. Martin Heinrich) may be pushing for even further price hikes.

According to this article from ClimateWire:

“The Biden administration is considering a new federal mandate that would require millions of newly built homes to have efficient heating and cooling systems, in a policy shift that could transform the nation’s housing market.

The administration has said it will decide within weeks whether to require a large number of homes to be built according to the latest international standards for energy efficiency.”

This is nothing new for so-called “progressives” like Biden and New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham. In fact, earlier this year Lujan Grisham imposed new regulations which will increase the cost of housing.

You can bet that Heinrich whose number one priority is “electrifying” our economy is in the background cheerleading for the Biden Administration’s latest economically-destructive policy.

At Rio Grande Foundation we talk about New Mexico’s abysmal workforce participation rate regularly. The Legislative Finance Committee has also addressed the issue with some regularity and has touted increasing participation as helping reduce crime, increase economic growth and productivity and drive expanded tax revenues while lowering expenditures on supplemental income programs and other kinds of government assistance.

The problem is that reducing government benefits is tough. It’s certainly not the kind of policy Rep. Melanie Stansbury would support:

The new Farm Bill has problems–for our climate, our farmers, and our families.

New Mexico families will lose $340M in SNAP benefits if this version of the bill is passed.

Support families.
Support farmers.
Support climate resiliency.
Change this bill. https://t.co/mF6FpcVxSv

— Rep. Melanie Stansbury (@Rep_Stansbury) May 23, 2024

But, as a new report from the Economic Policy Innovation Center notes, a majority of able-bodied food stamp (SNAP) recipients don’t work. 

Furthermore, just under half of all recipients remain on the program for more than 20 months.

It is one thing to go on food stamps if you cannot work or as a temporary stopgap between jobs. But most Americans and New Mexicans don’t want food stamps to be a way of life. Unfortunately, food stamps and other so-called anti-poverty programs seem to be preferable to work for many.

On this week’s Tipping Point interview Paul talks to Sammy Chioda. Sammy is a leader of the Gallup community. He owns a fantastic sports bar (Sammy C’s Rock N’ Sports Pub & Grille) with one of the largest memorabilia collections in America. Paul and Sammy discuss the challenges he has in finding workers, the hard-hit area’s recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic, deteriorating road conditions on I-40 and more.

Our friends at the Center to Unleash Prosperity have put together this excellent chart (below). It shows whether states have increased/decreased/stayed constant (those at 1) in terms of jobs since the start of the COVID 19 pandemic in March of 2020.

The good news for New Mexico is that after lagging badly on jobs during much of the pandemic and recovery New Mexico has more jobs today than it did in February of 2020. It is also right in the middle when it comes to jobs created over that time frame.

The bad news is that New Mexico’s middling result comes as the State is benefitting from a massive boom in oil and gas. This boom is happening only in New Mexico, not its neighbors. Yet, New Mexico lags behind ALL of its neighbors. Here are the rankings:

Utah: 2nd
Texas 3rd
Arizona 6th
Colorado 12th
Oklahoma 16th
New Mexico 25th

Generally speaking “red” states (those controlled by the GOP) continue to outpace “blue” ones. Colorado outpaces all of the other “Democrat trifecta” states (including NM).

New Mexico SHOULD be close to leading the nation in job growth considering its favorable geography and weather. Unfortunately its political leadership is unwilling and unable to use the unique opportunity created by the oil and gas boom.

A proposal now moving through Albuquerque City Council put forward by Councilors Dan Lewis and Klarissa Peña would put a measure on the ballot allowing voters to decide whether to revamp the procedures for electing candidates in the City. Instead of an outright majority, candidates for city offices would simply need to get above 40%. This would eliminate MOST of the special elections we’ve seen in recent years where candidates don’t get an outright majority in a 3 or even 4 way race. Those runoffs are expensive with a recent runoff election in a single Council seat costing $750,000.

A recent article by Democrat Sen. Katie Duhigg attacks the idea as “anti-democratic,” but it is hard to see why. Rather, it seems like liberals and their aligned groups simply want to preserve their own political power and not have another RJ Berry election (see below).

Generally speaking, runoff elections achieve much lower overall vote totals than do regular elections. For example, in the District 6 2023 general election the results were as follow:

Nichole Rogers: 2,974 votes,
Jeff Hoehn 2,400 votes
Kristin Greene 1,329 votes
Abel Otero 706 votes (even though he’d dropped out of the race)

Total votes cast: 7,409

In the runoff Rogers received 2,416 votes and Hoehn received 2,209 for a total of 4,629 votes cast. So, there were just over 60% of the votes cast in the runoff relative to the General. Rogers achieved 40% in the initial round of voting anyway. And, the cost to taxpayers was 3/4ths of a million dollars.

Strangely, but not surprisingly, Duhigg and the “progressive” Democrats prefer the current system since it maximizes their power. Duhigg even claims that the plan is some kind of attack on “democracy.” She correctly notes that RJ Berry (a Republican) won without hitting 50% in his first election in a three-way race (his win spurred Democrats to change the system). Of course, Berry won reelection with more than 68% of the vote which Duhigg fails to mention. Clearly, while Berry’s record is tarnished now by police misconduct and his ill-advised ART bus system, Berry’s win with less than 50% of the vote only caused “problems” for Democrats annoyed that a Republican won the Mayor’s race.

The proposal is P-24-1 and is being voted on at the June 3, 2024 City Council meeting. You can contact council here.

Albuquerque City Council recently adopted a $1.4 billion budget. Unfortunately, as RGF’s President tells KOAT Channel 7 in this interview, the budget is “status quo.” Nothing in it indicates that public safety and hiring more police officers is a top priority. You can see the story including Gessing’s comments here.

Gessing also told KOAT TV (not included) that the City has enough resources to spend on Zero Bus Fares and a new “free” ride share program. It should instead spend those to hire police officers and boost public safety.

Check out the full City budget for yourself here.

Back in the mid-2000s the City of Albuquerque spent $4.2 million to build a BMX track. The facility is next to Isotopes Park. As the 2007 article from The Alibi noted, the project at the time was not particularly popular with neighbors. We have also seen no analyses on the economic impact of the facility or how much activity takes place there.

But, the City is now going to build a second BMX track, this one at the revamped Los Altos Park, for $10 million. The difference is that the new bike track is a “pump” track meaning that you “pump” the bike back and forth to gain momentum.

Is this a priority for the City? I’ve never used the existing BMX track, but I’ve also never played pickleball in a city park. It does seem strange that the Mayor would not fund food for zoo animals in his original budget or $400K for IT at City libraries at the same time he’s pushing for another BMX track.

Government priorities are often based on the “squeaky wheel principle.” Making noise with politicians can get you what you want. But with crime still a major issue in Albuquerque, the latest budget does not prioritize hiring more police or taking on the City’s crime issues.

There is a lot of discussion about why Americans no longer trust “the institutions.” It would be great if the institutions would stop lying to us as a starting point. I happened to see this old social media post from Sen. Heinrich from April of 2020 which highlighted the “importance” of now-disproven recommendations like face masks and social distancing. BTW, the video Heinrich links to is a (since removed) video from the CDC which (based on context and link) shows people how to make home made face masks.

We stumbled upon the Heinrich post at the same time as the following post below shows NIH Director Francis Collins admitting that no “science or evidence” supported social distancing policies.

We aren’t really blaming Heinrich here except to say that he knew nothing beyond what the so-called experts were telling him. At the Rio Grande Foundation we questioned the lockdown and school closure policies imposed by MLG and we continue to work for reform of New Mexico’s absurdly broad public health emergency laws. At no time in American history has being skeptical of government pronouncements been more important than during COVID.

BREAKING: Former NIH Director Francis Collins admits no “science or evidence” ever supported social distancing policies. pic.twitter.com/5JgYJRzKsw

— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) May 16, 2024

To say that we at Rio Grande Foundation don’t often agree with Sen. Martin Heinrich would probably be an understatement. More importantly, we don’t think he does a very good job of representing the people of New Mexico. He was recently taken to task by the Albuquerque Journal editorial board (and several letter writers). While we don’t have any particular position on Puerto Rico statehood, like the Democrats’ desire to replace the Electoral College with a National Popular Vote, the impetus behind the proposal has nothing to do with representation or “democracy.” It is 100% political and, if adopted, statehood for Puerto Rico would negatively impact New Mexico, potentially costing us a seat in Congress.

More importantly, what does Puerto Rico bring to the table for the United States (besides more political power for Democrats in Washington)? According to the US Census Bureau “41.7% of Puerto Rico’s population lives in poverty, which is higher than the US rate of 11.5%. Puerto Rico has the highest poverty rate of any US state, with Mississippi being the next highest at 19.7%.” Thanks to our “anti-poverty” programs Puerto Rico would be a massive new burden for US taxpayers and the federal government which already faces a $35 trillion debt. Puerto Rico’s economy is unhealthy and people are leaving the island (even as they pay no US income tax). 

Heinrich’s other bill (equally misguided) would subsidize the cost of home purchases by teachers up to $25,000. Teachers are important, but by no means are they the ONLY important profession. But, why is a heavily-indebted federal government involved in handing out this new subsidy? Shouldn’t local school districts be required to pay teachers adequately? And why just teachers? How about medical workers? Farmhands and agricultural workers? Police/Firemen?

The chart below highlights how administration and management continue to eat up more resources that could otherwise be used to hire teachers:

Expanded early voting is going on now. You can find all the potential places to vote early between now and the June 4 primary here. What’s at stake in the primary election? Since Democrats control the Legislature, the most important races are on Democrats’ ballots. The most important races are on the House side where moderates, many of whom bucked the “progressive” push for paid family leave in the last session or the Gov. on guns (and other issues) are facing well-funded challengers put up by “progressive” groups or the Gov. or some combination of the two.

As is often the case you can find details on the voting records of ALL incumbent candidates at our Freedom Index. Most of the moderate Democrats have scores in the Zero range since positive votes and their points are offset by negative votes. “Progressive” Democrats tend to score closer to -50. Check the scores out for yourself. If “moderates” lose their primaries it could mean that New Mexico’s ongoing shift to the left is not complete. If the “moderates” win, that means that perhaps the “progressive” politics in New Mexico have hit their high water mark (at least for now).

On the GOP side there are some interesting races, but given their minority status nothing they do will fundamentally shift New Mexico. Ironically (but typical in GOP politics) while there is a lot of friction among the candidates running in the primaries the fundamental nature of the GOP won’t change dramatically. Here’s what WILL change:

1. While their numbers will be determined in November, the Senate Republicans will be more conservative than before as conservative house members replace Senate moderates (this is not contingent on primaries as most of the races are settled);
2. Replacing Rep. Harper in District 57 and Bill Rehm in District 31 are the top races on the House side;
3. On the Senate side, the District 12 race between Jay Block and Candace Gould is hotly-contested, so is the race to replace Mark Moores in District 21. The race in District 42 between Rep. Larry Scott and Sen. Steve McCutcheon is both extremely heated and expensive.

In summary, the ideological “action” is among House Democrats in this primary, but there are numerous primaries of importance on the House and Senate GOP side (and a few others on the Democrat side). Regardless, go vote!

I happened to walk by the beginning of a gathering of food trucks in downtown Albuquerque off Civic Plaza. It’s a great idea and lots of fun. I also couldn’t hep but notice that having a food truck also means having a powerful gas-powered vehicle to tow it around (some are self-driving, but also rely on fossil fuels).

In addition a quick look at each of the trucks highlighted the fact that they run on generators.

I bought something from one of the food trucks. It was delicious. I support food trucks and their big trucks and even their generators. Hopefully the Biden/MLG/Keller effort to cram electric vehicles and supposedly “green” energy fails to destroy these food providers.

Gov. Lujan Grisham continues with her headlong push for electric vehicles. The Gov.’s Environment Department recently touted the purchase of a “zero emissions” firetruck along with Bernalillo County. The problem is the truck has a diesel engine as has been pointed out by both The Center Square and the Albuquerque Journal. NMED’s press release makes no mention of the diesel engine.

The new Pierce Volterra truck will cost $2.1 million which is MUCH more than the lightly used traditional fuel Pierce Pumper that we found online at a cost of $749,000. What would a brand new equivalent to an electric (with diesel engine) firetruck run? We’ve never price checked firetrucks before, but we suspect it would be MUCH cheaper. Also, we certainly wonder what the overall weight of a firetruck with an electric battery AND diesel engine (and all the engine components for both) must weigh and weather this will really be “green” and how long it will last.

On the left is a photo of a Pierce Volterra “electric” truck at a cost of $2.1 million. On the right is the 2021 Pierce Pumper for $749,000.