Biden administration moves to expand solar power on US land—Matthew Brown, Associated Press
U.S. officials announced approval Tuesday of two solar projects in California and moved to open up public lands in three other Western states to potential solar development, as part of the Biden administration's effort to counter climate change by shifting from fossil fuels.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the Arica and Victory Pass solar projects in Riverside County east of Los Angeles, which combined would generate up to 465 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 132,000 homes. Approval of a third solar farm — planned for 500 megawatts and known as Oberon — is expected in coming days, officials said.
The land agency also on Tuesday issued a call to nominate land for development within "solar energy zones" in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico that combined cover about 140 square miles (360 square kilometers).
The solicitation of interest comes as officials under Democratic President Joe Biden promote renewable wind and solar power on public lands and offshore to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. That's a pronounced change from Republican President Donald Trump's emphasis on coal mining and oil and gas drilling.
Yet the Biden administration was unsuccessful in an attempt to suspend oil and gas sales from public lands and waters, after a judge ordered sales to resume following a lawsuit from Republican-led states. Biden suffered another huge blow to his climate change agenda this week, as opposition from West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin tanked the administration's centerpiece climate and social services legislation.
During a Tuesday conference call with reporters, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland did not directly address a question about the faltering bill and instead pointed to clean energy provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law last month.
"We fully intend to meet our clean energy goals," Haaland said, adding that the administration was trying to make up lost ground.
"The Trump administration did more than just stall clean energy development over the last few years. At Interior, specifically the Bureau of Land Management, they shuttered offices and undermined long-term agreements," Haaland said. "We are rebuilding that capacity."
The Bureau of Land Management oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of land primarily in Western states.
BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said officials are currently considering 40 large-scale solar proposals in the West. In early December, the agency issued a draft plan to reduce rents and other fees paid by companies authorized to build wind and solar projects on public lands.
In Nevada, where the federal government owns and manages more than 80% of the state's land, large-scale solar projects have faced opposition from environmentalists concerned about harm to plants and animals in the sun- and windswept deserts.
Developers abandoned plans for what would have been the country's largest solar panel installation earlier this year north of Las Vegas amid concerns from local residents. Environmentalists are fighting another solar project near the Nevada-California border that they claim could harm birds and desert tortoises.
Stone-Manning said solar projects on public lands are being sited to take environmental concerns into account.
The solar development zones were first proposed under the Obama administration, which in 2012 adopted plans to bring utility-scale solar energy projects to public lands in six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Officials to date have identified almost 1,400 square miles (3,500 square kilometers) of public land for potential leasing for solar power development.
If all that land were developed, the bureau says it could support more than 100 gigawatts of solar power, or enough electricity for 29 million homes. That's roughly equal to total U.S. solar power capacity already in place, with solar production from federal lands currently just a small fraction of that amount.
In November the land bureau awarded solar leases for about 8 square miles (19 square kilometers) of land in Utah's Milford Flats solar zone. Solar leases are expected to be finalized by the end of the month for about 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) of land at several sites in Arizona, officials said.
Solar power on public and private lands accounted for about 3% of total U.S. electricity production in 2020. After construction costs fell during the past decade, that figure is expected to grow sharply, to more than 20% of production by 2050, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected last month.
But solar power developers warn costs have been rising due to constraints on supplies of steel, copper, semiconductor chips and other construction materials.
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Associated Press reporter Sam Metz contributed from Carson City, Nevada.
New Mexico governor signs spending of federal pandemic aid—Morgan Lee, Associated Press
New Mexico's governor signed a nearly $500 million spending bill Tuesday that draws on federal pandemic relief funds to expand high-speed internet access, bolster roads, upgrade state parks, expand nurse training programs and help teachers pay off their student debts amid a shortage of educators.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, approved all proposed spending in the bill and vetoed a requirement that local governments contribute to related affordable housing projects. The governor said that requirement was unreasonable given economic distress.
A bill-signing ceremony in Belen marked a truce in a monthslong standoff between the governor and a handful of state senators over which branches of government can allocate $1.7 billion in federal pandemic aid.
Lujan Grisham initially asserted sole authority over the aid approved in March by President Joe Biden and Congress. Legislators including Republican Sen. Greg Baca of Belen and unaffiliated Sen. Jacob Candelaria of Albuquerque challenged the governor at the Supreme Court and successfully defended the Legislature's oversight of the federal relief funds.
Baca highlighted a provision of the bill that sets aside $50 million for the possible construction of an acute care hospital in Valencia County, which encompasses rapidly growing communities on the southern outskirts of Albuquerque.
The bill signed on Tuesday provides $133 million for high-speed internet infrastructure. Spending can go towards alternatives to underground fiber-optic cable such as satellite networks.
It assigned $142 million to road and highway infrastructure projects, $25 million to housing assistance, $20 million for upgrades to the state's network of state parks, $15 million to nurse training programs and $15 million toward advertising aimed at attracting tourists to the state.
The state will spend another $10 million to pick up litter, $7 million on outdoor recreation programs and $5 million on food banks.
The state already used $600 million in federal pandemic relief to replenish the state's unemployment insurance trust fund, avoiding payroll tax increases on local businesses.
Lujan Grisham previously authorized spending on sweepstakes prizes for people who got vaccinated and supplementary wages to agricultural workers that harvest and process the state's renowned chile crop.
Of the state's original $1.7 billion allocation in federal aid, legislators have wrapped more than a half-billion dollars into the state general fund to allow more time for spending decisions in the coming years.
Leading legislators are highlighting the need for workforce training and education programs to expand and diversify a state economy that is closely tethered to oil production, tourism and federal military and research facilities.
Albuquerque police launch crackdown on off-road vehicles—Associated Press
Albuquerque police are launching a crackdown on off-road vehicles being driven on streets and highways.
Police officials announced Monday that officers are being instructed to cite and tow all off-road vehicles being driven illegally, with no exceptions.
Police noted that a 7-year-old boy was killed when struck by an illegal off-road vehicle on a city street earlier this month as his family used a crosswalk. An arrest warrant has been issued for a 27-year-old man in that case.
Deputy Chief Mike Smathers said police have noticed an increase in off-highway vehicles being driven on city streets over the past year.
Nick Wheeler, another police official, said police have observed off-road vehicles being driven in packs, some even driving on sidewalks and forcing pedestrians to move out of the way.
Wheeler acknowledged that efforts to cite drivers have fallen short in the past.
"They can go places where police patrol vehicles can't go," Wheeler said of off-road vehicles.
To date, officers have issued no citations for their use on city streets, he said, adding, "everything we've tried to do to stop them has failed."
Smathers said enforcement efforts will include use of aircraft and off-road vehicles to track off-road vehicles rying to flee.
New Mexico militia compares itself to NAACP, prosecutors liken it to the KKK -Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A white supremacist militia under legal pressure from a local prosecutor in New Mexico is claiming protection under a 1958 court case that allowed the NAACP to keep its membership roster private from Alabama officials in order to protect members from violence and harassment.
The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office, meanwhile, says the case is more like a 1987 one where a federal appeals court required the Ku Klux Klan to turn over membership records, albeit sealed from the public.
The dispute stems from a non-fatal shooting at a protest in Albuquerque in June 2020 at the statue depicting Juan de Oñate outside the Albuquerque Museum. Steven Ray Baca is charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm for the shooting, two counts of battery on two other protesters, and unlawful carrying of a weapon.
Baca is not apparently affiliated with the militia but video shows six New Mexico Civil Guard members armed with rifles surrounding him just after the shooting in an apparent attempt to defend him. District Court Judge Elaine Lujan ruled in September that those same militiamen could be held liable for impersonating police officers.
DA Raul Torrez and lawyers from the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) accused the militia of threatening public safety and encouraging violence, and asked the court to force the group to stop organizing and training as a private military unit.
The DA’s office argues that New Mexico law forbids private unregulated security forces because they are not accountable to anyone and their behavior creates a chilling effect on other people’s rights to free expression. The militia has ties to white supremacist and neo-Confederate organizations, and local Republican officials and candidates.
They’ve been trying since January 2021 to verify the militia’s membership and obtain its communications with others, including police, said Mark Baker, special counsel for Torrez’s office. But the militia, he said, has not handed over the records and won’t even verify the authenticity of publicly available records like their website, for example.
After Baker and NMCG’s attorney Paul Kennedy argued in a telephonic hearing last week, Lujan ordered the militia to respond to the state’s questions by Jan. 2. If Kennedy fails to meet that deadline, all of the underlying documents that prosecutors are trying to verify will be entered into the court record, Lujan said.
Kennedy argued that answering the state’s questions would violate his clients’ freedoms of association, and said prosecutors are trying to make NMCG’s membership lists public.
He pointed to case law from 1958 where the state of Alabama was trying to obtain membership information from NAACP, and tried to draw a connection to news conferences and public statements denouncing the militia by the district attorney Torrez, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
“There could hardly be a clearer example of a manifestation of public hostility than that statement by the mayor,” Kennedy said.
Baker argued that the NAACP case is irrelevant because the militia has not shown that exposure of its members’ identities would open them up to economic reprisals, loss of jobs, threats of physical coercion, and other kinds of public hostility proven in the NAACP case.
It’s been nearly a year since prosecutors first handed their discovery demands to the militia and they’ve only gotten back 12 or 13 pages, Baker said. In the NAACP case, the group fully complied with Alabama’s discovery requests, he said.
Instead, Baker argued that NMCG is in a similar position to the Ku Klux Klan in a 1987 case where an appeals court upheld an order requiring the KKK to produce membership lists in discovery, but not making those lists public.
Judge Lujan agreed and said the militia has not shown that its members would suffer similar consequences if their names are discoverable in the lawsuit. So she ordered the militia to hand over the membership information, with the understanding that it will be governed by a carefully-written protective order.
“We’ve dealt with some absurdities along the way and getting to the nature of these admissions is important for us to be able to move forward with the case and get it properly ready for trial,” Baker said.
Prosecutors have received a “mishmash” of different answers from witnesses, Baker said, with some denying that NMCG is even a militia, and others identifying one defendant as a “captain” in charge of other members. That defendant said it was just a nickname among friends, Baker said.
The high profile of the NMCG case is due in part to its similarity to other cases around the country, with activists here comparing it to the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisc.
ICAP, the legal organization based out of Georgetown University Law Center helping prosecutors with the case, is asking a court in California to force social media giant Facebook to hand over records that would show who organized the militia’s Facebook page, which was apparently wiped when NMCG was banned from the platform.
ICAP previously represented the city of Charlottesville in a successful lawsuit against private militias at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017.
Complaint alleges company grifted Navajo Nation with the ex-controller’s knowledge -Arlyssa Becenti, Source New Mexico
New details emerged about allegations against former Navajo Nation Controller Pearline Kirk regarding around $3 million in Navajo Nation pandemic funding paid to Agile Technologies Group LLC to conduct COVID-19 tests.
A fresh round of criminal complaints were filed at Window Rock District Court on Dec. 3, a few days after Navajo Nation voluntarily dismissed other charges against Kirk before her case could get to trial.
Details from the complaints:
The Navajo Office of the Chief Prosecutor writes that Agile didn’t exist before March 2020, and just months later, this company was hired to conduct COVID-19 testing on Office of the Controller employees.
In two installments, the Navajo Nation government, at Kirk’s urging, paid Agile Technologies $3.1 million for the period from Nov. 17, 2020 to Dec. 30, 2020, even though this company would have been less than a year old at the time and lacked proper testing certification for its sites on Navajo, according to the complaints.
Agile charged the Navajo Nation $378,000 for testing and contact tracing, a service that was never performed, writes Acting Chief Prosecutor Vernon L. Jackson Sr.
At no point did Agile contact the Navajo Nation to report testing results to public health officials, as required by law, the complaints indicate.
In Agile’s invoices, the company charged the Navajo government $22 per rapid antibody test for about 2,500 of them, but “this math does not add up,” the prosecutor’s office writes, and somehow the total listed is double what it should have been — over $110,000.
Agile also charged the Nation more than half a million dollars for installing “germicidal” HVAC systems in six buildings, and it never happened, the complaints state.
At certain events, the company tested Council Delegates, from November 2020 through May 2021, when it was shut down by the Navajo Department of Justice.
Dire need
As the Navajo Nation grappled with the devastation of the pandemic, the U.S. Congress voted to send $8 billion from the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) to Native tribes across the country. But it did not come fast enough. In fact, the CARES Act was passed in March 2020 but tribes didn't receive funding until June.
It was only after the U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ordered the U.S treasury to pay up that the funding finally arrived. The Navajo Nation and other tribes had to sue the federal government for weeks in order to get a portion of the money, while states had received funds almost immediately.
Within that timeline, the Navajo Nation was battling the first waves of the pandemic with little resources.
But it only took five months, the prosecutor indicates, for $3 million to find its way to Agile Technologies Group LLC and its CEO, as payment for COVID-19 tests and other services that did not happen. “In November 2020, after receiving the Navajo Nation first round of CARES Act funding … Ms. Kirk caused a portion of these funds to be allocated to hire Agile Technologies Group, LLC,” the complaint states.
How did that contract get signed?
It wasn’t a mere oversight on Kirk’s part that allowed Agile to rip off the Nation, but rather something she helped make happen, the complaints indicate.
Kirk did not seek approval for the company’s contract with the Health Command Operation Center (HCOC) and Navajo Department of Health, according to the complaints, and that’s required by Navajo law. She also avoided Health Command officials after they informed her Agile was not allowed to conduct testing on Navajo Nation any longer, which happened as early as Dec. 15, 2020, though the company would operate for five more months, the prosecutor’s office writes.
Kirk allowed Agile to continue conducting testing on Navajo until May 7, 2021 when the company was issued a cease-and-desist order by the Navajo DOJ: “On Dec. 15, 2020, HCOC informed Ms. Kirk that Agile’s actions violated Navajo law, federal law, and applicable public health guidance, and that Agile’s testing must be stopped immediately,” the complaint states. “Ms. Kirk refused to stop the testing.”
During a mediation session between Kirk and HCOC on Dec. 20, 2020, Kirk indicated Agile’s testing would cease at the end of that year, the prosecutor writes. But Kirk still paid a second chunk of the Navajo Nation CARES funding of $1.9 million to Agile on Dec. 29.
Had HCOC been permitted to review Agile’s testing proposal, as required by Navajo law, the government would have likely spent that money elsewhere, according to the complaint: “If Ms. Kirk had consulted with HCOC as required, Agile would never have received a contract from the Navajo Nation.”. This, the prosecutor outlines, is the “deceptive action” that led the contract to be signed by Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez on Nov. 20, 2020.
Navajo Nation department heads, including Kirk, were provided training about the requirement that the Health Command Operation Center must approve all testing on Navajo, and also about available testing, workplace safety and precautionary measures.
Kirk’s defense
Kirk’s attorney David Jordan pointed out in their Dec. 3 press conference that contracts between Agile and the Navajo Nation were not signed by Kirk but rather by Nez. Jordan also said several processes and reviews happened before the contract was signed, including one by the Office of the Attorney General.
“It’s not the controller’s job to sign contracts on behalf of the Navajo Nation,” Jordan said. “It’s the controller’s job to ensure there is fiscal accountability, that when monies are being encumbered by the Navajo Nation, that they follow tribal and federal laws.”
Emergency response
The complaint shows that on Nov. 10, 2020, the Office of the Controller relayed to Navajo DOJ that the non-competitive proposal for Agile was in the best interest of the Nation because of emergency needs. This was a “deceptive misrepresentation,” the prosecutor writes. Kirk, the complaint explains, used this excuse to dodge having to get the appropriate approvals from agencies that would know this wasn’t the case.
The Navajo Nation already had contracts with Pacific Architects and Engineers and AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, both reputable and established United States government contractors with decades of experience that were reviewed by the Health Command Operation Center.
“Likewise, hospitals were providing testing services, and Arizona State University was providing testing through the Navajo Housing Authority,” the prosecutor writes. “Ms. Kirk knew that the Navajo Nation had existing available COVID-19 testing and related services, yet she chose to submit a materially deceptive review packet for a contract she knew would be approved based on her statements and her position as controller.”
In a timeline given to Navajo Council in May as delegates debated whether or not to remove Kirk, a history is outlined of questionable business tactics by her mentor Drew Ryce and Kirk going all the way back to 2007. The complaints also point to Ryce, saying Ryce and Agile informed Kirk that services they’d been paid for were not being provided.
Kirk knew of this and knew Agile would be shut down by HCOC if officials there were aware of the violations, according to the complaint. So she chose not to report the violations to HCOC or any other office and allowed Agile to continue its services and expand its unauthorized work on the Navajo Nation.
Luxurious living
When it comes to the CEO, who wasn’t specifically named in the complaint, it stated a day after Agile received $1.8 million for the second payment from Navajo Nation, that person used the same bank account to purchase a $145,000 Aston Martin sports car paid in a cashier’s check. He then moved into a luxury high-rise and penthouse apartment in Chicago with a listed rental fee of over $8,000 a month, according to the complaint, and he used the same bank account at a luxury resort in Mexico and for tens of thousands of dollars in luxury goods from lavish designers including Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
In the seven months when Agile was testing on Navajo Nation until they were shut down, there were 16,949 people who were infected with coronavirus, and 686 people had died from the virus.
“As the Navajo Nation’s Controller, the highest paid position within the Navajo Nation Government, Ms. Kirk was a Naat’anii with responsibilities to the People,” the prosecutors’ office writes. “She was obligated to carry out these responsibilities in a moral and legal manner while representing the People and the government. Ms. Kirk betrayed the trust of the People and failed in her responsibilities as a Naat’anii.”
New Mexico adds vaccine rule to mask mandate at the Pit -Albuquerque Journal, Associated Press
The University of New Mexico said Monday it will add coronavirus vaccination rules to a mask requirement for fans entering the Pit arena in Albuquerque starting after the Christmas weekend.
In a statement released Monday, officials cited "increased health risks posed by surging COVID-19 numbers and the emerging threat of the omicron variant." It said the directive would start with women's and men's basketball games Dec. 28.
"The university has a responsibility to our student athletes, coaches, staff and the thousands of passionate Lobo fans, to do what we can to protect the health and safety of those competing, coaching, working, watching, and cheering the game," said Eddie Nuñez, university vice president and athletics director.
Everyone 12 and older entering the 15,000-seat arena will need to show proof they're fully vaccinated or show a recent negative COVID-19 test.
New Mexico becomes the sixth school in the 11-member Mountain West Conference to set a vaccine rule for home arenas, including the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where the Mountain West Tournament is held in March.
The Albuquerque Journal reported the league said last week a decision had not been made about a vaccine mandate for the tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
New Mexico governor seeks low-carbon fuel standard -Associated Press
New Mexico's Democratic governor on Monday renewed her call for state legislators in the major oil producing state to approve requirements for fuel producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement that "New Mexico must pass a clean fuel standard in the upcoming legislative session."
The governor has discretion over which non budgetary initiatives are heard during the 30-day legislative session that starts Jan. 18.
Earlier this year, a Democrat-sponsored bill to impose low-carbon fuel standards stalled in the state House of Representatives after winning Senate's endorsement on a party-line vote with Republicans in opposition. The proposal would not have applied to retailers, including gas stations.
Similar programs have been implemented in California and Oregon. Low-carbon fuel standards are aimed at reducing greenhouse emission in the transportation sector by going beyond vehicle fuel efficiency requirements and setting benchmarks for fuel producers or importers or both.
The regulations typically quantify the environmental impacts fuels or blends — such as oil, ethanol or hydrogen — from their extraction or manufacturing process through its end use. The rules require providers to make gradual improvements in their production processes to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide or other pollutants into the air.
In California, oil refineries can be rewarded for incorporating renewable sources of electricity like solar panels or wind turbines to power the refining process — or by sequestering carbon underground instead of releasing it into the air.
Lujan Grisham applauded Monday's move by the administration of President Joe Biden to raise vehicle mileage standards to significantly reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases, reversing a Trump-era rollback that loosened fuel efficiency standards.
Republican House minority leader James Townsend of Artesia warned in a statement that the governor's policies could increase fuel prices in rural areas in an effort to please environmental activists.
New Mexico is producing more petroleum than ever before, surpassing North Dakota in recent months as the nation's No. 2 producer after Texas — boosting greenhouse gas emissions that are created when customers burn the state's oil or natural gas.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is poised to tighten federal methane regulations for the oil and natural gas industry. The New Mexico Environment Department is crafting its own rules aimed at reducing direct greenhouse gas emissions from oilfield equipment and preventing the release of methane, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides.
Suspect in Albuquerque boy's hit-and-run death a fugitive - Associated Press
The driver suspected of hitting and killing a 7-year-old Albuquerque boy is now considered a fugitive.
Albuquerque police said Monday that they served a warrant at the home of 27-year-old Sergio Almanza and he appears to have gone on the run.
Investigators identified Almanza as the suspected driver of the off-road vehicle involved in the Dec. 12 incident.
Authorities say Pronoy Bhattacharya and his family had just left the River of Lights display at ABQ BioPark. They were in a marked crosswalk with the right of way when an all-terrain vehicle struck the boy and his father.
The child died from his injuries. The father suffered serious injuries but is expected to recover.
Police say they suspect the driver was drunk.
ATVs are illegal on Albuquerque streets. The boy's death has prompted the city to review the current law.
Albuquerque boy's hit-and-run death prompts outcry over ATVs -Associated Press
Albuquerque police are planning to address the issue of illegal all-terrain vehicles traveling on city streets in the wake of a boy's hit-and-run death.
Police along with officials from New Mexico Game and Fish will address the issue with a news conference midday Monday.
Off-road vehicles are illegal to use on Albuquerque streets. But residents say that hasn't stopped people from violating the law. Police say they issue tickets in these cases and have the ATV towed away.
Concerns have turned into outrage after the death of 7-year-old Pronoy Bhattacharya earlier this month.
The boy and his family had left River of Lights at ABQ BioPark on Dec. 12 when a man on an ATV hit him and his father. The family was in a marked crosswalk and had the right of way.
The child died while his father suffered serious injuries. He is expected to recover.
Albuquerque police say an arrest warrant has been issued for the driver. Investigators believe he was drunk at the time of the incident.
