OPINION

Mail letters to PO Box 4910, Santa Fe, NM 87502; or email them to editor@sfreporter. com. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. Letters will be edited for space and clarity.

NEWS, NOV. 30:

“DISTANT FLARE”

AT THE CROSSROAD

Is an 800-acre solar facility in an agricultural area surrounded by communities and within sight of Turquoise Trail the right choice? New Mexico’s 2019 Energy Transition Act’s goal is to preserve a livable climate. However, careful consideration, and sometimes redirection, will be required to reach this goal successfully.

The Utility Scale Solar Facility proposed by AES Corporation and Rancho Viejo Limited Partnership will include 39 semi-trailer sized, lithium-ion battery containers. Lithium batteries are a known fire risk by the industry, given there is no means of extinguishing a lithium battery fire, just suppression and containment until it burns out; which in this case would be in our dry, windy desert environment surrounded by residential communities. Other considerations include habitat destruction to countless wildlife species and risk of contamination to the groundwater that many rely on. AES and the private landowner will certainly reap large profits from this deal, but at what cost to Santa Feans and our native environment?

At each crossroad in meeting our goal of more environmentally responsible and sustainable energy sources, solar facility locations that minimize additional environmental impacts and threats to our communities, e.g., by utilizing current industrial and brownfield sites, should be the decisive factors.For more information, email SantaFeCounty4ResponsibleSolar@yahoo.com. CAMILLA BROM SANTA FE

SERIOUS PROBLEMS UNSEEN

The doctor in San Marcos may be displeased to see an 800-acre solar farm as her neighbor, but the aesthetic blight is trivial; the serious problems of such technologies cannot be seen and yet can be foreseen. For example of the former, how do solar panels damage living soil by unnaturally shading the landscape? (On Dec. 2, SFAI hosted Dr. Lydia Jennings, who referred to several in-progress studies investigating this.) And to cite a foreseeable problem, providing electrification via unlimited fuel and without air pollution reduces motivation to end things detrimental to humans and other Earthlings: Artificial Lighting At Night (ALAN), online/ device addiction, mining and manufacturing, constant calories, mental and physical maladies of modernity, and rapid long-distance communications and transport—generally, further separation of humanity from evolved, unbridled nature that we are adapted to inhabit. After a lifetime of doing well without complex technology, our species is now cornered, and conformed (if not enslaved) to it. Standing on the precipice, facing existential doom and technology’s autonomy, we needn’t seek to avoid inducing climate changes while extending this dysfunctional system, but consider what is necessary to free ourselves of technological slavery and salvage an indefinite future on a viable planet. JORGE CLÚNI SANTA FE

SCREW HER VIEW

You know what actually is at risk of catching fire? Our beautiful, ecologically rich woodlands, which have been burning at historic rates due to greenhouse gas emissions—which this solar project will help mitigate. No mention that we’re in the middle of a climate crisis and desperately need all the clean energy we can get. She doesn’t want her view changed and is making up hysterical arguments about batteries catching fire. And you report this credulously? NIK PHILIPSEN VIA TWITTER @NIKPHILIPSEN

SIX QUESTIONS FOR BCC

Before commissioners vote on permitting AES’s proposed solar facility and battery energy storage system (BESS):

1. Has a professional engineer certified that

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