The 87
th Legislative Session s filing
deadline of March 12, 2021 has come and gone, giving us an
opportunity to survey the full suite of environmental bills –
air, water, waste, procedural – that will be considered,
debated, and voted upon by state lawmakers by the end of June.
Below, we detail the proposed House and Senate budgets for Article
VI (Natural Resource) agencies, and discuss some of the most
important pieces of legislation under consideration at the Capitol.
You can access a list of bill summaries using
this link.
Last summer, the palpable concern was that COVID-19 restrictions
would wipe out the state budget. In July 2020, the Comptroller conservatively estimated a
Basin Electric Power Cooperative s Dry Fork Station north of Gillette was one of the last coal-fired power plants built in the U.S., commencing operations in 2011. The $1.35 billion power plant has a generating capacity of 385 megawatts. (Dustin Bleizeffer).
Wyoming lawmakers are considering a suite of bills to help keep aging coal-fired power plants in the state in operation, including one measure that would allow the state to possibly take over ownership of a coal plant.
House Bill 259 – Public utilities-regulatory amendments would allow “the Wyoming Energy Authority, any other instrumentality of the state, a cooperative electric utility or a municipal utility” to purchase a coal-fired power plant otherwise slated for early retirement.
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March 4, 2021 3:30 PM, EST
New Mexico Takes Steps Toward Embracing Autonomous Vehicles
The bill would give the state the authority to regulate and give guidance to the emerging self-driving vehicle industry (holgs/Getty Images)
AZTEC, N.M. Autonomous vehicles can already be seen on some roads in New Mexico as two companies test vehicles.
Now legislators have introduced a bill that sponsor state Rep. Patty Lundstrom (D-Gallup) says would set up in statute the authority to regulate and give guidance to the emerging industry.
This bill would require companies wishing to test autonomous vehicles in New Mexico to provide five days’ notice to the New Mexico Department of Transportation and sets in place the information that companies should provide.
mgreier@salemnews.net
SALEM Â The Sustainable Opportunity Development Center now has a full-time coordinator for the training center and downtown development.
SOD Center Executive Director Julie Needs updated members of city council’s Economic Development Committee on Thursday regarding fourth quarter economic development activities in the city.
Part of the update was the hiring of Eva Slagle as the new training center coordinator, replacing Lesley Kline who with her family is planning to open a business this year.
Previously the position was part-time, but the decision was made by the SOD Center Board of Directors to make the position full-time and add the duties for downtown development.