What do we need?

 

• Mandatory disclosure of energy sources and pollutants on utility bills. Consumers cannot make informed choices if they don't have this knowledge. (The New Mexico legislature has mandated that disclosure be a part of any deregulation order issued by the PRC - whether CO2, mercury, and environmental impacts will be reported as well are issues currently up in the air).

• Fair Net-Metering provisions: Consumers should be allowed to compete on an equal basis with utilities. New Mexico has a net-metering law, but net-metering is limited to 10kW.  

• A mandate that renewables be a part of New Mexico's energy portfolio. There is no mandate at present for renewables in New Mexico's portfolio.

• Municipalities might do well to consider forming their own publicly owned utilities, a good example being the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. This allows municipalities to better control how and where their power is generated.

• Granting of carbon credits to those who install clean energy systems. Carbon credits are tradeable credits for reducing carbon emissions or removing carbon from the atmosphere.  Such credits could generate a substantial incentive for renewables. Presently utilities, working at the Federal level, are attempting to gain the credits generated by customers who install clean energy systems, or in other words, steal the credit from those who deserve it.

• Freedom from stranded costs. The public should not automatically have to pay for stranded costs associated with bad investments by utilities, such as cost overruns associated with nuclear plants, especially if these costs are not determined by actual market value (which is only determined if the utility divests the associated asset). If the utility were a consumer owned entity (such as municipal utility), then the utility should probably be liable, but such is not the case for investor owned utilities. Such utilities should be treated like any other corporation. While stranded costs have generally been associated with old investments such as nuclear power plants, New Mexican's may become subject to new stranded costs if renewable energy or distributed cogeneration becomes more widespread, because coal-fired plants will then gradually become obsolete. Thus, early protection from stranded costs is essential to the growth of renewables.