Cocoposts

Water Fee for New Development

The Albuquerque Journal's Sean Olson covers the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority*

The one-time fee for buildings, called the "water supply charge," will be placed into an account the water authority can only use to buy new water rights or direct toward finding new sources of water.

    Lynne Andersen, National Association of Industrial and Office Properties president, said the fees will most likely be passed on to home buyers and business owners.  But as long as the fees are strictly for new developments, Andersen said her organization doesn't object.

    "It's just part of whether it pencils into the bottom line (for deciding to start a business)," she said.

Wait a minute.  The fee ought to pencil into the bottom line for deciding to build a building, not start a business.  Not the same thing at all.  Unless your business is speculative building.   Or there are no buildings already built anywhere else in town.   

Locating a business, new or not, in a shiny new industrial park outside of the already sprawling water service area just got a little more expensive to pay for the water.   

* ABCWUA - an entity as fathomable as the name.  Just try to use the acronym. It violates a basic  bureaucratic principle that a board moniker must roll off the tongue and fit on a file label.  "Abeckwooah"?  Ugh. Come on.

Flat Tires on Economy

From a Denver Post story yesterday came news about jet manufacturing entitled "All the Air Taken Out"  in which they mention Eclipse Aviation's challenges:

The very-light-jet industry, which just recently seemed a promising economic-development niche for Colorado, has nearly fizzled out in the state. Within the past 3 1/2 months, Adam Aircraft and Aviation Technology Group, both based at Centennial Airport, have gone from up-and-comers in a potentially lucrative new business to shells of their former selves.

Even Eclipse was challenged   Even the most successful startup in the VLJ market, Eclipse Aviation in Albuquerque, has run into challenges.  ...

This morning the Albuquerque Journal's Sean Olson gives us the news about a defaulting developer  who insists this doesn't mean a thing for 57,000 acres in Albuquerque.   

California-based SunCal, developer of Albuquerque's massive Westland project, has had a rough year with some of its California and Nevada ventures— but insists that will have no bearing on its plans here. 

SunCal Companies defaulted on $184 million in loans— losing five properties in foreclosure.  At least nine lawsuits are pending in those states.

Moody's last month removed a bond rating on one SunCal company responsible for four developments in Southern California.  About $17.5 million in liens have been filed in two of its California projects.

But SunCal, which bought 57,000 acres from the heirs of the Atrisco Land Grant on the West Side last year for $250 million, insists none of its struggles to the west will affect the Westland project here.

Deaths and ATV Sales

From the Denver Post:

At least 555 people—including more than 100 children—died in all-terrain vehicle accidents in 2006.  ...  an additional 146,600 people were treated in emergency rooms for ATV-related injuries—more than a quarter of them children.

In more than 75 percent of the incidents where speed could be determined, it appeared that the ATVs were going too fast for conditions. ...The industry contends that it's not the vehicle but the driver that's the problem.   

So it's not their problem.  Oh and BTW, their huge sales numbers are down because they've saturated the market so they want to sell faster, newer, ATV's to younger people. 

Since 2004, sales of all-terrain vehicles have declined. Industry figures show that 912,000 of the vehicles were sold in the United States in 2004; 893,000 in 2005; 890,000 in 2006; and an estimated 759,000 last year.

The industry late last year decided to come up with a new transitional model for 14- and 15-year-olds that would be bigger than the current youth ATVs on the market, though not quite as large as adult-size ATVs. It says the goal is to keep bigger kids from riding adult-size vehicles. The new model would be able to reach speeds of up to 38 mph.

... the commission has been considering regulations that would lift restrictions on the engine size of youth ATVs, allowing manufacturers to make bigger vehicles to accommodate today's larger youngsters.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and consumer groups oppose the proposed rules, the  killjoys.

 

Green Rockets

Speaking of greenwashing.

From the Albuquerque Journal comes the press release about an architectural design for the Spaceport being "unveiled to acclaim".

This reported acclaim comes solely from the company president who, as far as I can tell, hasn't put a dime of his own money into this thing yet except perhaps to pay the marketing firm that musta written this.

Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn said Tuesday he was "delighted" by the design plans unveiled for a $31-million, environmentally friendly hangar and terminal facility at Spaceport America. (...)

A glazed facade on one side of the building will provide natural light and allow tourists and visitors to watch runway activity. Whitehorn said the building was designed to minimize its impact on the environment, both atmospherically and aesthetically. Rooftop solar panels will generate electricity for the building and LED runway lights, and the structure will be set into the ground to take advantage of natural heating and cooling. It will also have water recycling capabilities.

"It's almost carbon-neutral," Whitehorn said, referring to the recently popularized concept of building vehicles or structures that balance out fossil fuel use with renewable energy sources. Furthermore, its low-lying profile will fit with its desert environment, Whitehorn said. "This building points the way to a different approach to design," he said. "Most architects these days ... are still trying to lord over nature and push technology up into the sky. Now, the atmosphere up above is what we need to be thinking about, and how to preserve it."

Is it just too damn obvious to point out the ungreenlyness of torching rocket fuel for space joyrides? Or to note the fact that we are paying for this silly Spaceport with oil and gas taxes - taxes paid for the sacrifice of the San Juan Basin's water, soil and air quality? For a NASCAR for the rich?

Nothing green about it.

Secret Space Rocket Explodes

From the Denver Post

MOJAVE, Calif.—A fatal explosion at a Mojave Desert airport during testing of a propellant system for a new space tourism vehicle has shaken a small community that prides itself as the hometown of the first private space launch. The blast Thursday at a remote test facility belonging to Scaled Composites LLC killed three workers and critically injured three others.

The company, headed by maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan, made history in 2004 when its SpaceShipOne became the first private manned rocket to reach space. Since that milestone, Rutan has partnered with British billionaire Richard Branson to build a fleet of commercial vehicles dubbed SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic.(...)

Rutan, who arrived at Mojave after the accident, is tightlipped about his projects and gave little information about the test. But he said it had been done safely many times during the SpaceShipOne program and had been done once before for the SpaceShipTwo program. (...) Rutan had been secretly developing SpaceShipTwo in a hangar closed to the public. He had not publicly released a schedule for completion of the design, testing and first launch. Rutan said the accident would not change that.

Branson has invested at least $200 million for a fleet of Rutan's spaceships to send paying tourists some 62 miles above Earth for $200,000 to experience the view from space and five minutes of weightlessness. Earlier this year, Branson told a trade show the new ship would be ready within a year and, after a year of flight tests, would have its first commercial launch in 2009.

High Tech Debacle

Sandoval County and County Manager Debbie Hays will now demonstrate the consequences of messing up big time with wireless system contracting.

From the Albuquerque Journal:

-The man hired to write the county's bid specifications for the project master plan was allowed to bid on and ended up winning the master plan contract— a practice banned by the state and many local government entities.

-The county only put $300,000 of the project to competitive bid— a process designed to ensure the best work for the best price. And that piece of the project is arguably tainted by the fact that the winner wrote the specs.

-The county paid thousands of dollars up front rather than waiting for detailed bills— in effect, loaning contractors money to do work, some of which wasn't performed.

-The county didn't require the primary contractor to post a performance bond to ensure the job would be completed as promised. Liability insurance for the project wasn't purchased until last September, a year into the implementation.

-The county shelled out more than $50,000 to set up a private company, Sandoval Broadband, to oversee the project— a move that allowed the hiring of subcontractors and disbursement of public dollars to be shielded from public scrutiny.

While wireless may be high tech, the New Mexico State Procurement Code sure isn't. Competitive bidding and performance bonding is Not. Rocket. Science. Thus maybe answering part of the question, dumb, lazy or cheating?

Ben the Luz

Another chapter of my imaginary book of New Mexico politics will be entitled: Truth Hurts - Epecially Those Who Speak It. Here's a case study.

Ben Luce, physicist, solar advocate and former director of the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy worked his ass off lobbying for clean energy bills during the 48th New Mexico State Legislative session. He is heartbreakingly discouraged and has now said so. He says he'll start a group called Break the Grip to work toward exposing corporate power over the political process. Break the Grip is used to promote awareness of the dangerous undertow in some tidal commuities back east. Good metaphor for what goes on beneath the surface in our high desert politics. (Oh God, I sound like Monahan.)

The Albuquerque Journal story makes Luce's criticism all about the Governor. Sounds to me like he's discouraged about more than that, but it's all about the Governor these days. So he must be wrong! He is ranting! Perfect.

In recent weeks, Luce said, he has lost faith in the "ethical credibility" of Richardson's administration and the state Legislature.

What took so long?

I think the governor's clean energy platform is weak, and it's weak because basically he was not able to break free of corporate influence here locally, and that's too bad," Luce said he reached this conclusion as he reviewed his experience this past legislative session. The Governor's Office was not receptive to his organization's ideas and often proved hostile, he said. "It's become clear to me that corporations such as electric utilities are basically running the state," Luce said. "They have a Wild West belligerence to regulations."

What's that I see in the darkness? The truth? Go put that out, it's wasting electricity.

More-mart

From Grist Magazine, on the impossibility of a green Wal-Mart:

In January alone, Wal-Mart opened 70 U.S. stores.   At current growth rates, by 2015 Wal-Mart will have enlarged its domestic footprint by 20,000 acres, turning CO2-absorbing fields and forests into stores and parking lots.

Big-box stores make incredibly inefficient use of land. While 200,000 square feet of retail spread over several two-story downtown buildings with shared parking takes up about four acres, a single-story Superstore of this size, with its standard 1,000 parking spaces, consumes nearly 20 acres.

That's a lot of balloon-landing.

... It is not as though we need these stores. Between 1990 and 2005, the amount of store space per capita in this country doubled, while consumer spending grew at less than half that rate. The predictable result is that the U.S. is now home to thousands of dead malls and vacant-strip shopping centers. City planners are not the only ones alarmed.

"The most over-retailed country in the world hardly needs more shopping outlets of any kind," advised PricewaterhouseCoopers in a report to real-estate investors.

Interior Riddled

From the Santa Fe New Mexican we hear the not-so-terribly-shocking news that Interior Department officials and, (lest we forget),  oil and gas company executives, have lost their moral compass - if they had one to begin with.   

...(S)everal Denver-based officials in Interior's Minerals Management Service may have illegally benefited by acting as paid consultants to some of the oil and gas companies. At issue is whether the officials steered oil-trading contracts to favorite companies. ...

..."The allegation that any senior official who is responsible for collecting royalties from companies that drill on public lands is also taking money from those companies as a consultant is beyond a conflict of interest, if true, it is a crime," ... (said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass) a senior member of the House Resources Committee.

"The Interior Department is riddled with people who got their jobs because they were close to the oil industry and could be expected to tilt every decision accordingly," he said. "Royalties owed to the government from production on public lands have become the currency of cozy cooperation between industry and its special friends in the Interior Department." ...

Some people apparently need to be reminded that reliance on special friends to tilt every decision is not really how government oversight is supposed to work.

Weak and easily manipulated government agencies are a direct result of the Norquestian edict to drown the public sector in the bathtub.  How can good government result from repeating how all government is bad?      

Uranium Map

Santa Fe New Mexican makes a whoops with this map that misidentifies Interstate 40 in their story Uranium Deposits Spark Interest. 

After drilling six exploratory holes on Mount Taylor in search of uranium earlier this year, a Canadian-based company, called Western Energy Development Corp., has submitted a plan to the U.S. Forest Service that seeks to drill 47 more holes.  Urex Energy Corp. of Reno, Nev., in October announced plans to drill 21 exploratory holes on 2,700 acres of La Jara Mesa at the base of Mount Taylor.
... Another company, Hydro Resources, is seeking a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reopen uranium mining near Crownpoint.

Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll get lost.