On this week’s podcast Paul and Wally discuss Albuquerque’s first-ever billion dollar budget as proposed by the Keller Administration and what taxpayers are getting for their money.
Wallethub says New Mexico is the 2nd worst state in the nation for Millennials. Are they right? If so, why is NM at the top of yet another bad list?
Sen. Martin Heinrich attacks those who think electricity prices are set to go up in New Mexico. Paul notes that his bet with enviros has not been accepted, perhaps Heinrich will do that?
The Gov. has signed or vetoed all relevant bills. Paul and Wally offer a final recap of the session now that the bill signing is over.
Rural New Mexico is losing the most educated youth, not so much in the urban cities like ABQ and SF.
Renewables are just a marketing distraction.
Industrial wind and solar farms are both at the bottom of the energy density meter chart with stored fossil fuels having ten thousand times more energy density and nuclear fuels another million times more energy density than fossil fuels.
When we talk about energy density we are referring to the stored energy in a fuel source. While the sun has stored energy, it is 92.15 million miles away. Also, wind has stored energy but it is constantly moving around and not concentrated. In order to leverage wind or solar, you need collectors.
The energy from the sun and wind passes through the collectors as converted electricity to be immediately used, stored in batteries or discarded. There is no stored energy in collectors themselves for use when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
When you look out over the horizon and see all those massive wind towers with blades spinning in the breeze (or not) and you see endless rolling hills blanketed with blacken sheets of solar panels, you have to be impressed on the surface.
But when you look behind the physics of wind or solar collectors you will understand why these two sources are just not going to power a decarbonized New Mexico alone. We absolutely must have high density fossil and fission energy as our energy sources for generating base load electricity for the regional electric grid.
It was interesting to hear the demographic factoid that New Mexico’s Anglo population is older and better educated than the Hispanic population. I’m curious to hear some analysis on what effect demographic trends are having on the electorate.
We know we are losing educated young people — and it’s a good bet that these folks are not part of the Democratic base, e.g., government employees or welfare recipients. Has this accelerated the political shift from purple to deep blue?
If the electorate is becoming less educated, that bodes well for politicians such as Sen. Heinrich.