{"id":17609,"date":"2010-05-23T09:19:14","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T15:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=17609"},"modified":"2010-05-25T10:55:52","modified_gmt":"2010-05-25T16:55:52","slug":"montoya-wants-to-decentralize-land-office%e2%80%99s-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/05\/montoya-wants-to-decentralize-land-office%e2%80%99s-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Montoya pledges to decentralize land office\u2019s power"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Harry Montoya<\/p><\/div>\n

Harry Montoya<\/a> wants to decentralize power at the State Land Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The land commissioner has a lot of authority \u2013 and the previous commissioner has been criticized for making deals with developers and landowners without public involvement in the process.<\/p>\n

Montoya, one of three Democrats running for land commissioner in the June 1 primary, said intentionally involving the public and local elected officials in deals involving state land is critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting the public back in \u2018public lands\u2019\u201d would become policy if Montoya is elected, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe planning should be from the bottom up, instead of the top down,\u201d he said, adding that transparency would be an integral part of the process if he\u2019s elected.<\/p>\n

Montoya said he would also increase transparency by putting information about who holds public land leases online. People would be able to search the land office\u2019s Web site to find contact information so they could let lessees know they were coming on the property.<\/p>\n

Diversifying land use<\/h3>\n

Montoya\u2019s other vision involves diversifying use of the land. Currently, 95 percent of the money made off state lands come from oil and gas leases. Montoya said he would focus on increasing the amount of land that is used for developing renewable energy.<\/p>\n

The land office must partner with businesses to build wind and solar farms and transmission lines, in cooperation with local governments, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Montoya, a Santa Fe County commissioner, has been working in that job on renewable energy issues. The county just installed its first wind turbine to help power its public works building. And the county is about to start taking advantage of a new state law that allows counties to create solar districts and help homeowners finance the installation of solar panels on their homes.<\/p>\n

With his experience in mind, Montoya said he believes that after eight years as land commissioner he could realistically cut the amount of state trust land used for oil and gas drilling by 3-5 percent, with renewable energy projects replacing oil and gas on those lands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen overnight,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is going to take awhile.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Montoya said, the state can\u2019t forget oil and gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our golden goose right now,\u201d he said, adding that he opposes policies such as the Richardson administration\u2019s state cap-and-trade program. Montoya also wants to revisit the pit rule. He said it needs to be less prohibitive, while remaining environmentally conscious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying pander to the oil and gas industry, but let\u2019s work with them,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s not drive them out of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hispanics and American Indians<\/h3>\n

Montoya has been trailing in two polls (here<\/a> and here<\/a>) of the race, but he said he knows his path to victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to get the Hispanic vote and I\u2019ve got to get the Native American vote,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Montoya said he can relate to the cultural history and background of such people, which is one reason they should support him. They care about a balance between development and preservation, and Montoya said he will strike that balance.<\/p>\n

Montoya said he has received endorsements from at least seven pueblos in Northern New Mexico. He\u2019s also received the endorsements of a number of local elected officials from around the state \u2013 most of them Hispanic.<\/p>\n

Montoya faces Public Regulation Commissioner Sandy Jones<\/a> and former Land Commissioner Ray Powell<\/a> in the Democratic primary. The winner will face one of two Republicans — GOP activist\u00a0Bob Cornelius<\/a> or rancher\u00a0Matt Rush<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that 95 percent of state land is used for oil and gas leases.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry Montoya wants to decentralize power at the State Land Office. Montoya, one of three Democrats running for land commissioner, said intentionally involving the public and local elected officials in deals involving state land is critical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-17609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}