From today’s newspaper, a look at Jeff Bingaman’s approach to climate legislation: [A]s we sat down for lunch last week to talk climate and energy policy, the first thing out of Bingaman’s mouth was an explanation of “the Byrd rule.” The topic helps illustrate the delicate way Bingaman prefers to play the legislative game. The …
Jim Belshaw’s new book, a collection of his finest newspaper writing, is out:
My newspaper colleagues Marla Brose and Olivier Uyttebrouck did a lovely package over the weekend about a group of Franciscans here in Albuquerque celebrating Easter. Especially check out Marla’s slide show (story’s also linked from that page.)
IMG_0252 Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. That’s the Rio Grande you see there – the entire Rio Grande, as it leaves Cochiti Dam 40 river miles north of Albuquerque. It was flowing at about 1,000 cubic feet per second today when Lissa and I drove by during a Sunday wander. Cochiti, completed in the early 1970s, …
A bunch of stuff over at the place where I get paid on Energy Secretary Steve Chu’s visit to New Mexico this week. The bottom line: nuclear weapons remain important, lots of other missions for the labs, happy talk, no specifics. the bottom line (start here if you want to just skip to the meat, …
V.B. Price, in the Independent, has a must-read rumination on water constraints in middle Rio Grande planning: Is the notion of “reinventing cities” in the American West less about new rail and other transportation infrastructure than it is about finally being honest about water and doing something about it? But what could be done? Must …
On our nation’s appalling* inability to make decisions about nuclear weapon policy: In 1989, the Department of Energy told Congress that the old building was contaminated, with widespread corrosion, and asked for money to build a replacement. A year later, Congress killed funding, saying the federal government needed to come up with an overarching plan …
On the political tension over water conservation: Why should I save water when all it does is enable more sprawl?
I have a standing policy here at the Inkstain News Center against quoting anonymous sources, but this is too sweet to pass up: My alligators tell me that Joe Monahan’s college nickname was “Squid”. “Alligators” is NM politics blogger Monahan’s word for his anonymous sources, who tell him all kinds of important stuff, some of …
Money for nuclear weapons cleanup in the stimulus bill (adwalled): The federal government will pump $384 million into New Mexico’s nuclear institutions to clean up and dispose of old Cold War waste in one of the largest economic stimulus investments in the state. Los Alamos National Laboratory will get $212 million between now and 2011 …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Nuke Cleanup Edition’ »