Cocoposts

What Would Bronson Cutting Do?

Searching for a New Mexico politician to respect* sent me back to the beginning of the last century - to  U.S. Senator Bronson Cutting.  What would he think of industrial hemp and genetically engineered seed? In Bronson's day hemp was grown in New Mexico. Testimony on Representative Begaye's Industrial Hemp bill included that of a man who recounted how his grandfather grew it successfully in Truchas for many years.

House Bill 575 is at least the fifth attempt at legislation for industrial hemp production.  In 2009 there were memorials and two bills that died.  Two bills in 2001 died in committee. In 2000 HB 388 died in committee. In 1998 a bill passed both houses, but was vetoed by Governor Johnson. (Go figure.)

Efforts to liberalize hemp elsewhere are having a similarly bumpy ride.

In the House Agriculture committee debate on HB575, Representative Cervantes suggested the bill didn't need all that pesky licensing and fees wording. The bill was temporarily tabled for gutting and hasn't been seen since.

Now, if it was about using genetically modified hemp seed from Monsanto, we might get somewhere.

Putting Down Same-Sex Marriage

Witnessed House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee action on the bills about same-sex marriage this week.  Claus at Clearly New Mexico has the full story.

Testimony included chilling pronouncements about the government's role in baby-making and defining what marriage is about - which is babymaking.  In this world view, all married women are breeders and only married women breed. The rest of you can go jump in a lake.

Proponents of the three bills stressed the need to vote in order to "put the issue to rest."  This has gone on too long, proponents say. A vote will end the controversy.  By the end of their testimony I was certain "put to rest" meant "put down" like a horse with a broken leg - let's put these civil rights out of their suffering.

Such a vote stirred up a nest of nasty and didn't put anything to rest in California.  And Politics USA finds growing distain for the "social wedge issues trick" even within the GOP.  Defining marriage gets government out of our lives how exactly?

Representative David Chavez stressed over and over that voters "want this resolved."  But it's the ignorance, bigotry and hatred behind these bills that needs resolution.

Texas Squeeze

The Los Angeles Times reporter Evan Halper describes similar scenes in the California and Austin capitols:

"throngs of advocates for the poor, the disabled and the elderly telling old ashen-faced lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee about the various horrors" of planned cuts. 

Stories are similar and familiar - evidence of epic policy failures and sad statistics speak for themselves.

 Such figures call into question whether Texas' economy has really transitioned into a new 21st century model, or whether it has been buoyed by high oil prices and lots of loosely zoned land where construction of cheap houses endured through the recession.

And marvelous Molly Ivins mention in another LA Times column by Michael Hiltzikin:

California's Legislature has won national renown for its dysfunction, but Texas lawmakers know how to squeeze dysfunction until it squeals. The late Molly Ivins reported years ago that when a good-government group ranked the Texas Legislature 38th among the 50 states, the reaction among knowledgeable Texans was, "You mean there are 12 worse than this?  

 

The Gas Valve At Otowi Bridge

John Fleck has an excellent account of the Gas Company's response to the crisis Upfront in the Albuquerque Journal.  The company official presented the timeline to the HENRC committee yesterday and described the chilling choice to shut off the gas value valve at Otowi, Bernalillo and Placitas in an effort to keep the entire system from crashing. 

It was clear from the presentation that the company's decision to close the value to the coldest communities in New Mexico was not made lightly.  But it had to be made very fast. 

One interesting factoid presented was not questioned.  The decision to shut the Otowi value valve was made before the company contacted PNM to request that the Cobisa power plant, south of Rio Bravo, be switched to oil.  They needed to get blocks of 10,000 decatherms shut off quickly. The gas company official said the Otowi value supplies 20,000 decatherms and services the northern communities of Espanola, Taos, Questa, Angel Fire and Red River.  He said the Cobisa demand is 17-20,000 decatherms. The Cobisa plant produces electricity exported to California. 

It was also noted at HENRC that a lot of gas was still flowing out of the San Juan Basin westward while northern New Mexicans shivered.  Contracted consumers out of state come first legal-wise.

Otowi holds a special little place in history.  It is the site of the official gaging station for water on the upper Rio Grande and was once the location of a railroad stop and early post office on the "Chili line."  There is an important pueblo ruin nearby.  Several well-known books have been written about the place and a woman named Edith Warner who served scientists dinner and tea there.  Peggy Pond Church's book begins: 

This is the story of a house, a house that stood for many years beside a bridge between two worlds. It stood, too, in the shadow of Los Alamos, the mushrooming shadow of violent change.

More than the story of a house, it is the story of a woman who made an oasis of serenity and beauty in a world that seemed to grow more threatening.

Stronger Fracking Regulation

New Mexico's new administration seems intent on backpedaling on, not improving, regulation of the heavily represented oil and gas industry.  But some states do it!   Youngstown Business Journal  notes release of independent non-profit STRONGER report on Ohio fracking regulations. 

A targeted review of the Ohio program regulating the hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells has been completed by a multi-stakeholder group, which has concluded that the program is, overall, well-managed, and also made recommendations for improvements...

You'd think the industry would see it as a way to protect operations, not just groundwater.

  Photo:  Michael J. Mullen / Scranton Times & Tribune via AP - Syracuse.com

Cecile Lawrence of Apalachin holds a sign against gas well drilling during a news conference in Dimock, Pa. Nov. 20 [2009] announcing a lawsuit filed by 15 families against Cabot Oil & Gas. A group of 15 families say the Houston-based company has damaged water, air, health and lifestyles for people living near drilling rigs.

Ethics - All Behind Us Now

"That such a deal was even considered shows the willingness of Richardson's cronies to view the state's coffers as their own private bank. As more documents come to public light, each revelation just gets more stunning and makes you wonder." Albuquerque Journal

Wonder at the apparent naivety, maybe.  People all over, inside, out, and around local government use it as their own private bank.  It's a consequence of long standing structural constructs and customs.  These don't change much with a new administration.  While there are new or different players at the top surface, all the old pond deposits remain.  The leeches, snakes, gators, contractors and lobbyists will show newcomers the twisted dirty ropes on which some will undoubtedly hang themselves as some of their predecessors did.  Nothing will improve if we imagine the problem is all in the past.

BTW, on the scale of dirty inside deeds and deals I count the new Governor's first movidas on behalf of polluting industry as far more unethical than a long-past Baltimore casino deal that never happened. 

 

State Open for Business

As in New Mexico, Colorado legislators are under the well-funded impression that chopping regulations will solve everything that ails ya. Coyote Gulch notes their legislature started up Wednesday and got a lot of solicited advice from the Association of Commerce and Industry.   Some of this, from the president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association,  sounds mighty familiar (Trinidad Times).

We’ve seen companies flee Colorado for reserves in other states, not because those reserves are any better, but because the perception was that Colorado was closing down for business. And the tax environment and the regulatory environment are the two key pieces of that.

That particular rhetoric has always reminded me of a school yard threat from a bully who says he won't play if he can't break all your toys.  Good then.  Go home.  I'll find new friends who don't want to decapitate my Barbie and throw her head in an unlined waste pit.

Quotes by Harrison "Jack" Schmitt in Thomas J. Cole's UpFront Albuquerque Journal piece offer insight into what we're in for if he gets confirmed as head of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources. 

"There exists no true concern ... about the true effects of climate change — only a poorly concealed, ideologically driven attempt to use conjured up threats of catastrophic consequences as a lever to gain authoritarian control of society."

Yes, we have men like Schmitt to thank for our lack of control.  Of our drinking.

 

 

Transparency App

Transparency and Accountability are overused and ill-defined but they sure sound good.  The new Governor promised they would be core values of her administration.  But the meanings of T and A can vary wildly.

It's easier to say what it isn't about.  It isn't about corporate transparency and accountability.  No, in spite of record profits this "Accountability" is  decidedly about tax dollars not gas dollars.   Private profits are accountability-free as long as they're enough of them. 

Transparency is taken to mean seeing government guts for ourselves.  The new New Mexico State Sunshine Portal provides such information as budgets and salaries.  So we can say there's an app for that now.  Those  pieces of transparent information are good government in the same way the bits of colored glass are the cathedral window.  But a portal is a good start.
 
There's the accountability of elected officials to think about as well.  To whom are they accountable?    The  tendency is to be most accountable to those with whom you are the closest.  In the legislature that means peers, lobbyists and contributors.

We need an ethics app.

Inaugural Booms and Hats

Three National Guard helicopters circled the Santa Fe plaza low and loud.  Multiple twenty-one gun salutes with rifle and canon set off alarms and scared the dogs and children.  Ah, the sound of war at an inaugural! It would have felt a bit martial-law like except for the smiling, cheering and saluting. 

It was cold.  The Governor was wearing tiny earmuffs and no hat in 3 degrees with a stiff wind.  I tried to stand next to fat people for warmth.  The Indian dancers weren't wearing nearly enough in the way of buffalo adornment for far too long.  By the time the new Governor began her speech I couldn't feel my feet, the mimosa had worn off and all the fat people were suspicious.

The military hardware was a hard act to follow.  Here's the text of her speech via Monahan.  It reads with more passion than she gave it. 

I cannot promise we will always agree on methods, but we will share the same goal of a just, prospering and limitless New Mexico;  a place where every mother's child has the encouragement and a fair opportunity to succeed as my other's child has' a place where dreams are made real.

Dreamy limitlessness?  I'm all for it.

We won't take more of your money from you or grow the deficit because we are not willing to make the same tough decisions you have had to make. 

It needed a red pen. I started taking pictures of hats and dogs.

 

Transparent Bribes

A couple of Dallas housing developers have been sentenced for bribing public officials.  The story (Dallas Examiner - Harvey Grund)  alludes to the bigger picture of local government corruption.  The case took down some powerful politicians - the former mayor pro tem got 18 years in federal prison and a former planning commissioner - 14 years.  Ten others got fines or jail time.

That may sound like something that only happens in Chicago or New York but this kind of thing happens in most cities, large and small. In a large city the scope of the crime, the amount of money changing hands and the amount of publicity may be greater but in every city across the world there are politicians who face a daily temptation to breech the public trust in return for something they value. Some of them, in truth like some of us, find it hard to resist temptation. 

It reads to me as a caution against the hubris of lauding baby steps at more "transparent" government in New Mexico.  (Especially where such cries for transparency arise from profound civic suspicion and ignorance - nutured by talk radio.)  Knowing agency budgets and salaries is nice and all, but bribery and extortion won't be uncovered through a magical Sunshine Portal.