Dear Editor, 

Tom Shelley
For
Grant County District 5 Commissioner

My Priorities

• Protect Constitutional Rights/Freedom
• Public Health and Safety
• Recovery from COVID Pandemic
• Flourishing Economy for Grant County
• Transparency and Truth on County Matters and Business
• Take Care of County Citizen and Infrastructure Priorities

My Vision for Grant County

I will be a voice to work with businesses to promote the best environment for prosperity which also yields the best environment for wildlife and human flourishing. That is my philosophy. Government does not need to create jobs. Entrepreneurs will always do a great job of that. Limited government and low taxes are the best tools to generate economic activity – whether it be our foundational agribusiness, mining, ecotourism, etc. We have resources that make all these opportunities attractive.

Many foundational businesses feel attacked by our state and county governments' recent actions. House Bill 220 of 2019 was a case in point where a local environmental group worked with a Santa Fe politician to revise the New Mexico Clean Water Act that would have made it impossible for the local mining company to be in compliance with the law, thus their crucial permits would have been denied. This is just one example. Government needs to stop behaving this way and instead, partner with business in a mutually supportive way.

New Mexico's Gila River Water Allocation

The Colorado River Basin Project Act, amended by the Arizona Water Settlements Act, was the result of hard-fought litigation to make New Mexico somewhat whole for past losses of water to Arizona and California through a Supreme Court action! The AWSA as passed was fully intended to restore some of New Mexico's rightful water allocations. This water is not only for farming, but of course it can be used to support municipalities and community water supplies. It can be used for other industrial uses as well. A supplemental agreement also requires that the environment/instream flow be protected. Parties who oppose/hope that New Mexico never develops this water right include California, Colorado, Arizona (including tribes there) who litigated against New Mexico from developing its share. Because New Mexico has not taken action to secure its water, these hard-fought settlements are in jeopardy. These other states and entities are applauding our inaction.

I believe that this water can be developed for the good of our State and County while taking care of the environment. This takes visionary leadership to accomplish. The costs for developing the water are a bargain compared to the value of the water. To claim this water will never be needed is short-sighted. Someday, when ground water supplies draw down and deplete, New Mexico will then demand this sustainable water be developed, but it will be too late. Arizona will be too dependent on our water and likely already is. I admit that environmental groups have won their political campaigns to stop any additional diversion so far. Our state and county governments have joined forces with them to block current and future proposals, and I am disappointed by this. One way they have done this is by supporting Wild and Scenic Rivers Act Designation of the Gila River.

My opponent hopes to garner municipal support to use the money from the Arizona Water Settlements Act on municipal infrastructure projects which is a big temptation. Politicians cannot resist misappropriating money for other purposes. This is why our Social Security system is insolvent. New Mexico has no hope of sustaining prosperity without securing this water future. We should solve the immediate problems without "selling out" our future. I do support utilizing some of the funding to improve current diversion methods/structures with the goal of also diverting some of New Mexico's additional water right. There are creative ideas and opportunities to develop the water allocation and enhance the environment. People have the creative capacity to do both.

What is Wrong with the Wild and Scenic River Designation of the Gila River?

We need to look deeper and ask ourselves why the New Mexico Cattle Growers, Farm Bureau and Mining Company are opposed to the Wild and Scenic River (WSR) Designation of the Gila River as the current legislation is written. It's not that these folks are opposed to the environment. They all support reasonable environmental protections. I have done my homework on this issue and found these facts are being ignored and dismissed by proponents:

• Red Flag – New Mexico Wild and Senators Udall and Heinrich stated that this designation will not affect current diversion proposals for the Gila River as they asked Grant County for its support. However, behind the scenes – they rallied their supporters to move WSR forward quickly to STOP the Arizona Water Settlements Act diversion.
• The purpose of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is to prohibit dams on "free flowing rivers" – but it is being used here to prevent "any current or future diversion proposal"
• Aggressive, wealthy environmental groups (like Southwest Center for Biodiversity – which serves on the Board of Directors of New Mexico Wild) have used WSR designations routinely as a basis to sue federal agencies and other entities to stop activities along, above and below designated river segments. The Senator's staff has honestly reported to me that they cannot prevent this type of litigation.
• Ranchers and farmers feel threatened by the designation – knowing that these environmental groups have sued their peers out of business in other states?
• A Suitability Study should be done before designation so that economic, social and other impacts of the designation can be considered. However, this designation is being rushed through without a Suitability Study.
• NM Wild and the Senators have stated that the designation will not affect current water right usage, farming, grazing, roads and infrastructure – however, a river management plan will be developed that typically does affect all of these things. Better language for the legislation has been proposed and should be utilized to ensure that current and future water uses really are protected.
• Most Gila River water users who depend on this watershed for their livelihoods (farmers, ranchers, mining) were not approached in advance, but only at the last minute after opposition began to be voiced.

Energy Transition Act

Abundant, reliable, low-cost energy is the foundation of our lifestyles, prosperity and a clean environment. The New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau is opposed to the Energy Transition Act (Also being referred to as New Mexico's Green New Deal) because the increased cost for energy will put many farmers and ranchers out of business. I attended a meeting with the New Mexico component of the Western Electric Coordinating Council, which is charged with monitoring and balancing the power generation with the load for all of New Mexico. By law, if a power generation unit goes offline, they are required to restore that power within 10 minutes. Therefore, by law, they are required to be "reliable." I asked the authority, so what is your plan now that you are required to use "unreliable power sources" like wind and solar completely within 10 years? The answer was, "We have no idea how this will be done." This is a tragedy, that our State government would impose such a mandate with no plan. Already it is affecting our energy cost and it will only get worse very fast. It is reported that last year our electric power cost increased by 10% over most of New Mexico ( https://errorsofenchantment.com/new-report-new-mexico-residential-electricity-rates-rose-9-2-over-past-year/ ). Have you looked at your household power bill lately? I looked at mine this month and calculated the monthly cost to be over $0.15 per kilowatt hour which is higher than reported above. New Mexico is not a wealthy state and we are being sent headlong into energy poverty by our own government.

I use solar power to pump water for livestock and wildlife at my ranch. No one subsidized this for me. It was simply the best solution for me at the time. If these so called "green or renewable" power sources were so good, government would not have to mandate their use, consumers and utilities would install them willingly. Wind and solar generation units are heavily subsidized. But the worst thing about them is that consumers have to pay for more reliable backup generation capability because they are so unreliable. So, we pay twice for the same generating capacity. There may be good reasons to eventually transition to cleaner sources of energy. But what we are not told in our society is that there are far better, more reliable and more environmentally friendly options to generate the needed power than wind and solar with today's technology. Wind and Solar are not all that "clean" and have a huge environmental disadvantage - they take up far more surface area/space and more rare minerals, water and fuel in their manufacture, than conventional fossil fuel or nuclear generation units. Nuclear technology is very safe and efficient now; however, environmental groups have essentially outlawed the use of this technology in the United States. Many environmentalists are beginning to realize they have been wrong about this strategy (https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2018-11-15/environmentalists-warm-to-nuclear-amid-climate-change-threat). New Mexico should be a leader in developing, utilizing and exporting clean nuclear power. We would benefit greatly because we have abundant deposits of nuclear fuel and we have specialized national labs to partner with in this development venture.

Thomas Shelley

Silver City, NM