Public Service Company of New Mexico mailers are urging locals to "help
PNM keep Santa Fe moving forward" in a public relations blitz against
creating a publicly owned utility here.
And if that phrase sounds familiar, it's because Mayor
Javier Gonzales used it as his campaign's key slogan last year. Gonzales' platform also used some of the same rhetoric that proponents of a taxpayer-funded utility are now employing.
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but moving forward when it comes to energy means a real commitment to renewables," Gonzales says in a written statement. "PNM is welcome to put their message out there, but Santa Fe is serious about a renewable energy future, and the plan to get us there is going to come from the people and their elected representatives."
PNM calls that proposal "misguided" in its mailers.
"Some Santa Fe elected officials are proposing a taxpayer purchase of PNM's electric system and creating a city-owned electric utility," read the inside of the mailers, which feature pictures of solar panels, wind turbines, PNM workers and smiling adults and children. "It's a misguided effort that could take us backwards."
The mailers contend that the costs to taxpayers of purchasing PNM's electric system could be "four times greater" than the $250 million given in one unidentified "taxpayer funded third party study." (That's a likely reference to a study commissioned by the nonprofit New Energy Economy, released in 2012).
Officials with PNM have not yet returned a voicemail left Thursday seeking comment on the mailers.
On January 28, City Council is slated to consider a resolution introduced by councilors Joseph Masestas, Chris Rivera and Peter Ives that would direct city staff to contact Santa Fe County to schedule a joint county-city meeting "for the purpose of discussing and determining if and how the city and county may pursue a joint publicly owned electric utility."
The resolution also calls for city staff to conduct a study "of the legal and technical options the city has in creating a publicly owned electric utility."
The mailers direct readers to a website PNM created, www.powerforprogress.com, created on August 2, 2014, according to a whois.net domain report.
January 22, 2015, 3:30 pm: SFR updated this post to include responses to the mailers from Mayor Gonzales.
Santa Fe Reporter