By Ken Hughes, Chapter Conservation Chair

From the Rio Grande Sierran, Nov./Dec. 2007.

Going by Gonzales Elementary School in downtown Santa Fe the other day, I noticed a solar electric array prominently displayed in front of the school. What a great way to generate solar while educating school kids and the public alike, I thought. Then I began to wonder why the school roof should not be completely covered with solar collectors, enough to heat, cool, and electrify the school. Reality hit: how on earth could Gonzalez Elementary afford to go solar on its bake-sale budget?

That’s why the Sierra Club is announcing the Cool Capital Campaign. We are challenging Governor Richardson and the Legislature to make efficient use of energy, alternative forms of transportation, and applications of renewable energy top priorities in the spending of capital outlay funds. Capital outlay requests from schools, towns, and service providers must be given priority if they reduce pollution, put our abundant sources of renewable energy to use, make efficient their use of energy, or promote less polluting ways of getting around.

Governor Richardson is campaigning on a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 90% by 2050. Let’s change the capital outlay process so that we can go to work today to meet that goal, one public building at a time.

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As Sierra Club lobbyist Dan Lorimier and Energy Efficiency Chair Gail Ryba testified before the Legislative Capital Outlay Subcommittee on October 16, carbon-efficient buildings take more money but are now technologically feasible. Let’s outfit our senior citizen centers with energy-efficient heaters, windows, and lighting, complemented with rooftop solar.

Excess electricity generated by solar cells in midday can reverse the meter to compensate for other parts of the day. Transport seniors to the center aboard plug-in hybrid vans, part of a fleet of vehicles serving schoolkids, patients, and seniors alike. The Sierra Club, through our Adopt-a-Legislator project, will ask state senators and representatives to put their share of capital outlay monies into such sustainable projects.

Siting of state-funded facilities must be cognizant of what we term location efficiency. Putting schools, clinics, and offices at the edge of town not only forces every kid, patient, and public worker to be transported there, it attracts growth along with it, thus attracting sprawl. The Gonzales Schools of our communities, on the other hand, should be models once again for how to site schools, senior centers, affordable housing, health clinics, and state office buildings in close proximity to neighborhoods, downtowns, and transit stops.

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Folks should be able to make a trip for school, work, or appointments by walking, biking, or taking bus or train if they so choose and not have to rely on rides from moms or friends.

The Sierra Club’s Cool Cities Campaign asks the Governor to sign an executive order dictating that all new and leased state office buildings to be located in downtown areas or within walking distance of a transit stop. Confronting climate change means changing business as usual or, in this case, New Mexico’s system for doling out pork. We cannot wait for the White House and the Congress, who are captive to polluting interests, to enact meaningful steps any time before January 20, 2009. Let’s confront climate change with capital outlay change here in New Mexico.

For more information, contact Conservation Chair Ken Hughes.

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Cool Capital is a Rio Grande Chapter campaign in New Mexico to get the Governor and Legislature to fund alternative energy and energy efficiency projects.

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