Co-ops fear climate bill
A New Mexico electric co-op, which says the House-approved cap-and-trade climate change bill could nearly double customer bills, delivered 500 letters this week to Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall seeking significant changes.
The Continental Divide Electric Cooperative Inc. says the adopted House Bill 2454 could cost its 19,000 customers as much as $54 more a month. A Senate bill has yet to go to the floor.
The current average residential electric bill is about $62, and the co-op already has a big delinquency problem, said Mac Juarez, Continental member services representative.
“We have a demographic here that is on the very low side of household income,” he said. “We only see that (delinquency problem) increasing as the result of any legislation that drastically increases the bills people pay.”
Co-op general manager Richard Shirley said in a cover letter to the senators that the cap-and-trade emissions policy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions would be detrimental to the co-op and called on the senators “to come up with a more sensible plan.” The legislation must be “fair, affordable and achievable.”
Continental, which buys its electricity from the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, is based in Grants.
It serves Cibola County and parts of McKinley, Valencia, Bernalillo and Sandoval counties. The service area includes Laguna and Acoma pueblos and part of the Navajo Nation.
Shirley said Continental has joined a national campaign called “Our Energy, Our Future” calling attention to the impact of climate change legislation on co-op customers across the country.
Keven Groenewold, executive vice president of the New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which represents 16 co-ops and Tri-State, said his organization shares Continental’s concerns. He said the association believes the allocation of emissions credits in the House bill is unfair.
“By and large, we’re pretty unified on this,” he said. “I’m going to say we’ve probably got over a couple of thousand in the state who have sent e-mail or postcards to our congressional delegation.”
Bingaman, in a statement released Thursday, said: “As we consider climate change legislation in the Senate, I believe we must pay close attention to the needs of consumers — including those who rely on co-ops — and do everything possible to contain costs.”
Udall is a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which is in the early stages of preparing draft climate change legislation of its own, Udall’s office said in an e-mail.
“While we can’t confirm the accuracy of the $50 estimate they are citing in these letters, we understand that there are efficiency credits that can be helpful in defraying costs,” the e-mail said.
It is important to keep pushing cap-and-trade legislation because the status quo “threatens the basis for our way of life,” Udall said. “Scientists predict that global warming could give my home state of New Mexico the same climate as the Sonoran Desert.”
The House-approved measure would establish caps on greenhouse gas emissions and require regulated entities, such as power companies, to acquire permits to cover all their emissions. A trading system would allow companies that could inexpensively cut their emissions to sell their emissions credits, an attempt to harness market forces to find cost-effective greenhouse gas reductions.