NM electrical utilities detail wildfire prevention measures as state enters fire season
—Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Electrical utilities with customers across New Mexico are working quickly — and often at great expense — to prevent their power lines from sparking wildfires, according to presentations officials gave Thursday to the Public Regulation Commission.
The PRC, which regulates utilities, asked the providers to present their wildfire mitigation plans and answer questions about the upcoming wildfire season.
Amid increasingly hot and dry weather, the risk of trees falling onto power lines and igniting wildfires has prompted utilities, including both investor-owned ones like PNM and small rural electrical cooperatives, to invest heavily in wildfire-detection technology and fireproof materials.
Company leaders, in the day-long hearing, described new mapping software that can identify high-risk areas; artificial intelligence-enabled cameras that detect wildfire starts instantaneously; and their ongoing efforts to replace wooden power poles with ones made of steel, equipped with non-exploding fuses and guards to prevent trees or wildlife from contacting live wires.
Utility leaders are also increasingly preparing to implement pre-emptive power shutoffs during periods of acute fire weather, according to their presentations Thursday, to prevent their power lines from being responsible for ignitions, potentially leaving thousands of customers without electricity for days until power can safely be restored.
PNM implemented one such shutoff across the state last year in the Las Vegas area and, earlier this year, rolled out a new alert system for wildfire-prone areas in the state. No other utility on Thursday indicated it had done its own “public safety power shutoff,” but several described their systems for deciding when to implement one, along with steps they’re taking to ensure medically vulnerable customers and hospitals have as much advance warning as possible.
Throughout the hearing, PRC Commissioner Greg Nibert asked utilities repeatedly about how much they anticipated spending on prevention measures over the next few years. He told Source NM after the meeting that he expects utilities will pass the costs of fire prevention onto customers, at a time when utility costs are already rising.
“People keep asking us why their utility bills keep going up,” he said. “There’s a variety of reasons, but this is one of the areas that traditionally, maybe, has not been receiving the investment that has been needed, and now you’re having to make those investments.”
In addition to the environmental and human costs of wildfires, utilities are also concerned about being sued for wildfires. The fear is particularly acute for rural electrical cooperatives that often operate on thin profit margins in markets that investor-owned utilities won’t enter, said Vincent Martinez, CEO of the New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative association.
The Jemez Electrical Cooperative faced one such lawsuit recently after a tree located outside the property it controls fell onto a powerline.. Since paying a $25 million settlement, the cooperative has to pay twice as much for insurance that covers far less than before the fire, he said.
Martinez told commissioners that the cooperatives have even greater concern about lawsuits after the Legislature failed to enact House Bill 267, which would have protected utilities from some liability as long as they demonstrate in advance they had taken steps to prevent hazard trees from falling on power lines.
Martinez said he hopes the failed legislation will form the “base” of a bill carried forward into the 60-day legislative session next year.
“I think we’re the only state in the West that hasn’t had some type of fire mitigation legislation in the last few years,” he told commissioners
Plans for new Santa Fe homeless shelter move forward without state capital outlay
—Santa Fe New Mexican
In Santa Fe, a local nonprofit plans to build a 125-bed homeless shelter on the south side of the city.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Interfaith Community Shelter is moving forward with the project despite an unsuccessful attempt to secure state funding for the shelter.
Interfaith Community Shelter was the founder and longtime operator of a city-owned homeless shelter on Cerrillos Road. The planned site for the new shelter is a 1.1-acre property on Emblem Road near the Santa Fe Place mall.
The new facility is planned to be called the Resource and Opportunity Center, or the "ROCk." The New Mexican reports the cost of the project is an estimated $16 million.
New Mexico United to open home USL schedule Saturday
—Mark Haslett, KUNM
New Mexico United will host its first home game in 2026 league play Saturday afternoon. The team is coming off an appearance in the United Soccer League’s Western Conference Finals last November. The team and the organization are on an upswing, but are beginning the season with some uncertainty both on and off the pitch.
United will once again play its league games at Isotopes Park. The arrangement isn’t sustainable indefinitely. A years-long effort to establish a soccer-only stadium at Albuquerque’s Balloon Fiesta Park remains on the table, but is stalled. More recently, United has been mentioned as a possible anchor tenant for a new multipurpose outdoor stadium at the State Fairgrounds.
Team officials have been cautiously supportive of the Fairgrounds option, while keeping the door open for the Balloon Fiesta option. When asked about the stadium issue at a press conference Thursday, United head coach Dennis Sanchez spoke in general terms.
“I feel strongly that our state, our city, our club, deserve a stadium,” Sanchez said. “I think that it will generate a lot of buzz that is deserving in a lot of ways.”
Sanchez did, however, indicate that the club continues to envision a facility built particularly for soccer.
“And, you know, to imagine playing in a soccer-specific stadium in front of our supporters, where they're, you know, on top of the opposition, and all these different things like, it's great,” Sanchez said.
On the pitch, United are still seeking their first victory of the season after starting the campaign with a 2-1 loss at Oakland March 14 and a 1-0 shutout defeat at San Antonio. New forward Justin Rennicks, a former New England Revolution striker back in the U.S. after two seasons in Finland, has the team’s lone goal thus far.
Sanchez said his players are ready to implement the lessons they learned in their first two games.
“Understanding the why behind success or why behind not having success, is really important, and then you learn and grow from it,” Sanchez said.
Saturday’s match is against rival Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, which headed to Albuquerque with a 1-1-1 record on the young season. Gates will open early for a fan festival starting at 10:30, followed by kickoff at 1 p.m.
Local leaders break ground on $38 million West Central affordable housing project — Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
Local government and business leaders ceremonially broke ground on a $38 million affordable housing project a block off West Central on Thursday.
Over the next year, construction crews will renovate defunct public housing off West Central and 60th NW and build additional units, ultimately providing 88 new or refurbished apartments for low-income families.
Thursday’s celebration brought together leaders from nonprofits, the private sector and local government, including Bernalillo County Commissioner Barbara Baca.
“This is my home,” Baca said. “I went to John Adams Middle School and West Mesa High School. So welcome, and I'm so excited for this housing project to be moving forward.”
The project, called Casitas del Camino, combined millions in federal, state, city and county government funds in an attempt to address what politicians and activists have called a housing crisis.
According to a 2024 study, Albuquerque is lacking approximately 22,000 affordable units for low-income renters.
Casitas del Camino will provide what Linda Bridge, executive director of the Albuquerque Housing Authority, called “truly affordable” housing for families.
Families who make 60% of the area median income (AMI) or less are eligible to live at
Casitas del Camino. That amounts to a maximum of $49,000 a year for a family of three.
Forty-four units will be reserved for families earning 60% AMI or less, while 17 units are limited to families making 50% AMI or less. Twenty-seven units will be for the lowest-income residents who make 30% AMI or less. That’s approximately $24,700 a year for a family of three.
The site will also include a playground, basketball court and community building.
Mayor Tim Keller congratulated the housing authority on the project, saying that, once built, the apartments will bring much-needed stability to the lives of local children.
“These kids are going to grow up in a home, instead of going from hotel to hotel or instead of going from apartment to apartment on short-term leases,” Keller said. “They're going to have a place that they come home to year after year.”
The project is expected to finish construction in about a year, Bridge said, after which prospective tenants can apply through the housing authority.
Gillian Barkhurst is the local government reporter for the Journal. She can be reached at gbarkhurst@abqjournal.com.
Otero County extends federal immigrant detention contract again after first attempt deemed illegal
Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The Otero County Commission on Wednesday evening voted again to extend a federal immigrant detention contract. The vote came after the New Mexico Department of Justice determined its attempt earlier this month violated a state transparency law.
Source New Mexico reports the unanimous vote seeks to prolong the county’s arrangement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and private prison operator MTC that allows ICE to house detainees at the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral. A new state law, House Bill 9, goes into effect in May banning such arrangements.
The Wednesday meeting was an attempt to address violations the state Department of Justice identified as a result of the contract extension commissioners enacted March 13 after a hastily scheduled emergency meeting. The NMDOJ determined that the commission had violated the state Open Meetings Act, which rendered the contract invalid.
County officials have said they need to maintain the contract to pay off more than $60 million in revenue bonds the county sold to build the facility in 2007. They also say the facility’s closure will result in 230 lost jobs, as well as other harms to the county and its residents.
Just before the vote Wednesday, County Attorney RB Nichols reiterated his defense of the emergency meeting and criticized the Legislature for what he said was “indifference” in passing HB9 without providing the county a path forward.
NM attorney general joins lawsuit against feds over rule changes for nutrition program
Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez this week joined a coalition of AGs across the nation in suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture over its allegedly “unconstitutional and unlawful” requirements that states receiving funding for two key food assistance programs cannot, in the words of the policy, “promote gender ideology” or quote, help “illegal aliens to obtain taxpayer-funded benefits.”
The lawsuit alleges that the USDA implemented new rules late last year for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, along with its supplemental program for Women, Infants and Children, which require states to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders and to cease all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
Among other points, the AGs argue that the USDA’s new rules are exceedingly vague and require funding recipients to comply with “federal anti-discrimination laws, regulations, and policies,” but neglect to specify the policies in question.
Moreover, the attorneys general from 20 states and Washington, D.C. allege that the new rules force states to choose between feeding vulnerable populations and capitulating to the federal government’s demand for “sweeping changes” to state policies.