Santa Fe, NM – One of New Mexico's main energy suppliers has a golden opportunity to "go green." That's one of the points made in a new analysis of Tri-State Generation and Transmission's expansion plans. Tri-State is the company that provides power for 12 of New Mexico's electric utilities.
The report, commissioned by Western Resources Advocates, comes out just as Tri-State's board meets this week, for the first time since the company was denied a permit to build a new coal-fired power plant in Kansas. John Nielsen, with Western Resources Advocates, sees this as an opportunity for New Mexico to move toward more renewable sources of energy.
"It's really a critical time for Tri-State. They have an opportunity now with the denial of the permit, to take a step back, review their existing plan and really take a much harder look at clean energy, efficiency and renewable resources."
Tri-State claims to have been taking steps toward meeting renewable energy standards, but Nielsen says its efforts amount to "less than a drop in the bucket" for the more than one million Tri-State customers. He believes Tri-State should start planning now for the increasing cost of coal plant construction and possible limits on CO2 emissions, which includes taking a closer look at New Mexico's home-grown energy resources.
"There are great solar resources and wind resources in New Mexico and I think one of the opportunities is to develop resources that have larger local economic development benefits."
The report is available online at www.summitblue.com.
