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Planning rules advanced After killing off the energy rules, the Corporation Commission voted to open a new case to formulate rules on a new integrated resource planning process, part of which was included in the rejected energy rules. Under current rules, TEP and other utilities have developed their own resource plans based on expected demand and a mix to serve that demand cost-effectively. But the ACC rejected the last plans TEP and APS filed in 2018, citing an over-reliance on natural-gas generation. In 2019, the commission chairman at the time, Republican Bob Burns, had proposed a new resource-planning process that relied less on utility demand forecasts and set up an “all-source” request for proposals process for new generating resources, which could include sources like natural gas as well as carbon-free renewables like solar. Márquez Peterson said she supports the all-sources approach and wants to develop the resource-planning as part of a new rule-making process, which could take up to nine months to draft and another nine months to bring to a final vote, ACC staffers said. Kennedy suggested that the panel strip the carbon-free energy mandates from the rejected energy rules and vote on the rest as a package including the new resource-planning process. But the ACC’s chief legal counsel said that would require an unlikely reconsideration of the previous vote or launching a whole new rule-making process anyway, since stripping out the mandates would substantially change the rules as published. The commissioners agreed to start a new rule-making process for resource planning, initially based on work by stakeholders as part of the energy-rules process.
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$3,000… and a long trip to town. Nothing is cheap anymore! I miss the days before all the EPA regulations; before cell phones and internet; before computer boards and electrical circuits, before diesel exhaust fluid and all those sensors. I like the old stuff with steel hoods and framed doors, before those durned plastic hoods that don’t last but rot away from the heat and sun. The kind of equipment that if it has fuel, oil, and a battery… by golly I can make it run! I miss the days when you could pop the hood on a pickup, pull and file a set of points, put ‘em back and fire it up. I miss the days when any kid could fix a often get laughed at for owning and bicycle chain, and bailing wire was plenworking the old stuff. You know the tiful. When trips to the dump were a older equipment without all the bells treasure hunt looking through stuff that and whistles, the stuff without all the other people tossed away, and gathering electronics and gizmos, for running the those treasures that might be of use to stuff with faded paint and rusty hoods. us. When you live in rural New Mexico far Heck some of my stuff is lucky to have from town, jury rigging was the school I a working radio! But that’s just the way I attended because money was tight and roll… I do have some modern stuff… but parts are miles away. I’ve done so much I don’t care for it, because I can’t work on with so little for so long that I can do it, and often the parts stores and techni- pretty much anything with nothing. cal services are as many as 60 miles or That’s just how we farmers and more from the farm, or maybe it’s just ranchers do it. because I can’t figure it out. Maybe it’s because I just don’t have Don Hartman manages and operates Hartman patience to sit and wait until the dealer- Farms LLC with his wife and son in southwestern ships open. Anyway, call me old school I New Mexico, raising famous New Mexico green as well as onions, watermelons, cotton, grain guess. I make do with what I have, partly chile sorghum, and hay. Don grew up working on a because money is tight and in agriculture farm from the time he was 12 and decided that it we only get paid once a year… at harvest. was the life he wanted for himself and his family. Don is a first generation farmer starting on his So we have to make it last. own at 20 years old. He is a graduate of Deming I just wish we could go back to the High school, and is currently working on his days when guys knew everything there Master’s Degree from the School of hard knocks was to know about the underside of a which he still attends regularly. Don is currently Vice President of Outstanding Farmers of America, hood when it came to mechanical stuff serves as a state board member with New Mexico and how to fix it. I wish we could go back Farm & Livestock Bureau, is the Vice President and to the days when the mom and pop parts longtime member of Luna County Farm Bureau. stores would answer the phone, you Don has a long list of accolades for his excellence in agriculture and conservation. Don is a supporter could run to town and they’d open up and advocate for youth and agriculture, donating Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Eve and time and resources for programs like 4-H and FFA. they’d take care of you. Those were the Don can be followed on Facebook and is known for his writing of inspirational and sometimes days of service! humorous stories known as “My thoughts from The big cities have part stores on the tractor seat.” every corner and mechanics a plenty. But to haul our big equipment to town to get fixed is a chore and expensive. When it comes to equipment I use it up, I wear it out, I fix it up and make it do, or I’ll just do without. We patch our own tires and run them until we just can’t anymore because a new tractor tire can cost as much as HOME AT THE RANCH by Don Hartman
Old Days & Old Ways
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