{"id":564392,"date":"2018-04-19T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T14:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=564392"},"modified":"2018-05-16T14:35:30","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T20:35:30","slug":"gubernatorial-candidate-jeff-apodaca-on-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/04\/gubernatorial-candidate-jeff-apodaca-on-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Gubernatorial candidate Jeff Apodaca on the environment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_564419\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-564419\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Apodaca\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Apodaca-Jeff.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Apodaca<\/p><\/div>\n<p>NMPolitics.net is publishing a series of interviews over the next few days with New Mexico&#8217;s four gubernatorial candidates that were\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/826823\/coming-up-this-week-gubernatorial-candidates-answer-questions-on-water-energy-climate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conducted by New Mexico Political Report<\/a>. The candidates\u00a0answered questions about issues related to water, energy and climate change. The first is from Democrat Jeff Apodaca. Apodaca is a former media executive and the son of former Gov. Jerry Apodaca.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>NMPR:<\/i><\/b><b>\u00a0We\u2019re coming off a bad winter and we\u2019ve got drought returning to the state. What critical water issues will your administration tackle?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Apodaca:<\/i>\u00a0What critical water issues? We have no water issues. We have enough water to last a thousand years. Are you aware of this?<\/p>\n<p><b><i>NMPR<\/i><\/b><b>: No.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Apodaca<\/i>: Do you know the State of New Mexico sits on one of the largest aquifers in the country? We have the most water in the country. But 90 percent of the water we live off is surface water. My point is, our water is a major issue. We\u2019ve been fighting over it for hundreds of years. As governor there are three things I want to do immediately.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing is, we need to go to the Supreme Court and break some of these water pacts. When we created these pacts, the snowpack and the water was a lot different. At the same time, we have technologies today, and there\u2019s no reason we can\u2019t have water lines and water pipelines all over the country now.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/826830\/gubernatorial-candidate-jeff-apodaca-on-the-environment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in the state of New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Whether you believe in global warming or not \u2014 I happen to believe in global warming \u2014 when you look at all the floods over the next 100 years, they\u2019re going to be in four or five states east of Texas. My proposal is, with the federal government and with the private sector, let\u2019s start piping water from the East Coast.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve looked at research, and the experts are telling me we\u2019re in a 300-year drought, and the heart of the drought is the State of New Mexico. They\u2019re telling me we\u2019re in year 80, so we have another 220 years of this. I don\u2019t think you and I are going to live 220 years, but we need to solve the problem.<\/p>\n<p>So, one, I think we can pump water from [areas prone to] floods and we can push it around our country. As New Mexicans, we can lead that issue with Texas. If we get the water to Texas, we solve New Mexico\u2019s water issue.<\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of other things. We can irrigate much more efficiently, where we can save almost 50 percent of our surface water. I grew up in [Las] Cruces, and I have dear friends who are pecan farmers. They lose 50 percent [of their water] to evaporation. We know California and other states are already irrigating under the surface, and that saves 50 percent of the water. [For farmers] to do that, it costs them about $164,000, $165,000 a year. Over a ten-year period, that\u2019s a couple of million bucks. It\u2019s very expensive. But there is not a farmer I have met in my lifetime that if you went and said, \u2018I\u2019ll invest with you and you\u2019ll save water\u2019 that they\u2019re going to say, \u2018I don\u2019t want to do that.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>We have this $23 billion [permanent fund in New Mexico] and our proposal is to create a billion dollars in low-debt financed loans for small New Mexico industries. Agriculture is 12, 15 percent of our economy. When I\u2019ve talked to farmers, specifically the large farmers, [and said] \u2018If you could borrow the money at a two and a half percent return,\u2019 they\u2019re willing to invest into this. But the problem is the bank loans and the commercial loans are 6 to 8 percent. They just can\u2019t afford that.<\/p>\n<p>Then we have to look at crops like hops, like hemp, instead of alfalfa, that use 75 percent less water. We have to look at fruits and vegetables, organic fruits and vegetables, and we have to create multiple co-ops, specifically up in the north and in central New Mexico. So, we\u2019re coming up with ways where we\u2019re growing things with less water, we\u2019re growing things within co-ops that will be more efficient and will make more money for everybody, and we\u2019re creating jobs and tax revenue.<\/p>\n<p>But I don\u2019t think that solves our problem.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>We literally sit on aquifers that are the largest aquifers in the world, in the country. We have enough water down there to last 1,000 years, so why haven\u2019t we pumped it up?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because 75 percent of the water is brackish.<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s world we have the technology: we can go down there, we can clean the water. Israel\u2019s doing it, California is doing it, everybody\u2019s doing it.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the environmentalists will say, \u2018Jeff, there are chemicals, there\u2019s salt. What are you going to do with that?\u2019 I\u2019ve now found a couple of companies that have come up with recycling plants that can remove the salts and the chemicals and they\u2019re [using them to make] building products. So, let\u2019s go get that water, let\u2019s build those plants here, let\u2019s clean the brackish water, and then we can have water for ourselves. Today\u2019s market is about $55 a barrel, which means Arizona, Texas, California, Nevada will buy our water. To me, I look at things as a commodity.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>I would love to move away from fracking tomorrow, but let\u2019s just be realistic. That\u2019s not going to happen. I have some Democrats that are upset at me because I\u2019m not going to say we\u2019re going to get away from fracking. I\u2019m just trying to be realistic to the voters. It\u2019s 37 percent of our economy. But as governor, I want to regulate it and make sure we\u2019re doing it the best way. And today, there are two companies in New Mexico that can literally clean the fracking water and make it fresh water.<\/p>\n<p>One of the companies, I can\u2019t say who they are, they\u2019re about to move to Texas \u2026 because they couldn\u2019t raise the money here. So this company is going to explode, it\u2019s going to create jobs, and they\u2019re going to do it in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been trying to explain why to my environmentalist friends [why the oil and gas industry is interested in water]. One, they\u2019re interested in it because they see the pressure coming. They take six to eight percent of our freshwater out of the aquifer down in Carlsbad and Artesia, and they know I want to stop that. I know they need fresh water, and they own land rights. They have every right to the water. They\u2019re not doing anything wrong. They\u2019re just taking six to eight percent of the aquifer water.<\/p>\n<p>[After they use that water, they put the produced water in wastewater pits] or they truck that water to someplace, like Texas, and they clean it up. Or, they put it back in the ground.<\/p>\n<p>One company is building a prototype right now that can clean up the water. That\u2019s going to cost about $3 million, and once they go into production they will have mobile units that can go to the site and clean the water. And either we can keep the fresh water or they can recycle it for fracking or we can pressure the ground with the fresh water. The oil industry told me it costs them between $750,000 and a million dollars to dispose of [produced] water per well. [The companies] are telling me their technology will clean the water on-site at about $300,000-400,000. So the oil guys would save about $500,000 to $600,000 per well.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>NMPR<\/i><\/b><b>:\u00a0<\/b><b>Revenue from oil and gas is an important part of New Mexico\u2019s economy. But the industry also has environmental, public health and climate impacts. How will your administration balance these different issues?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Apodaca<\/i>: New Mexico has to take the lead. I don\u2019t want the federal government regulating us. With oil and gas, I\u2019ve sat and talked to them [and said] \u2018Look, let\u2019s just work together and make sure we\u2019re doing it the right way.\u2019 We\u2019re not moving away from fracking anytime soon, so I want to regulate it. I told them, we\u2019re not going to frack at Chaco, we\u2019re not going to frack around our aquifer, we\u2019re not going to frack around the Native Americans\u2019 precious lands.<\/p>\n<p>Though, if the Jicarilla [Apache Tribe] wants to frack on their land, I will support their decisions. I\u2019ve already made it very clear with the governors and the presidents of our pueblos and tribes, I will collaborate and work with you. I will not do anything on your land that you don\u2019t want to do.<\/p>\n<p>The short story is I want to regulate at a state level, I want to work with oil and gas making sure that, if we have to flare, then let\u2019s flare at the shortest amount of time. We all know there are methane leaks up in our northern part of the state, especially. Now, I will be very frank. I\u2019ve been told today, the [satellite imagery of the methane hotspot] everyone is using is an older picture. If you took a picture today, I do believe the oil and gas guys have closed down some of the methane leaks, and it\u2019s better. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s great, just better.<\/p>\n<p>When you really dig into it, the really bad methane leaks are wells that are still producing for families, and they\u2019re mostly local families, but [the wells are] 30, 40, 50 years old. The newer wells really don\u2019t have a lot of leaks. [Big companies like] ConocoPhillips, they\u2019re all about money, so they\u2019re basically going in and fixing their leaks and monitoring their leaks.<\/p>\n<p>If Colorado can work with oil and gas and come up with regulations that they can live with, we can do the same thing. And then we can recapture [the methane and sell it] and the state could probably make an extra $30 to $50 million.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, I have a billion dollar investment plan for renewable energies. I can give you tax credits to get solar on your house or solar on this building, but I want to build major solar and wind farms to power Arizona, to power California. In today\u2019s market, you can literally generate energy at four cents a kilowatt and sell it out of state for anywhere from 11 to 18 cents a kilowatt.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want to just lease out our land and have somebody else do it. I want revenue streams so I\u2019m going to invest with them. I want to bring PNM to the table \u2014 and I have environmentalists arguing with me, [asking] \u2018Why we are talking to PNM,\u2019 or \u2018Why are we talking to the oil and gas guys?\u2019 First of all, PNM is a holding company that\u2019s sitting on about $4 billion. And the oil and gas guys are the main industry in our state making all the money. And guess what they\u2019re doing? They\u2019re investing in renewable energy \u2014 in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>We have to collaborate and work with everybody, because this fighting back and forth, [and saying] who\u2019s the enemy and who\u2019s not, hey man, we\u2019re all New Mexicans. We all want to live here, you want your kids to stay here. So let\u2019s start working together and solving all our problems. By doing that, we create jobs, tax bases and tax revenues, and that gives us more money for our schools, our health care, for more doctors, things like that.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>NMPR<\/i><\/b><b>: Under Gov. Martinez, from the very beginning, her administration backed away from earlier commitments on climate change \u2014 from reducing greenhouse gas emissions to studying the impacts of climate change to even canceling a \u201cClimate Masters\u201d class the New Mexico Environment Department used to host. What will your administration do to address mitigation and adaptation issues with respect to climate change?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Apodaca<\/i>: We believe in the Paris Climate Agreement. I think there are 13 or 14 states that have agreed to support that, and I would support that same thing.<\/p>\n<p>I think what Governor Martinez has done, not just with [the New Mexico Environment Department], she\u2019s pulled back on everything\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>I would make sure that people within [NMED] are not only environmentalists. But I think it\u2019s important for people to have renewable energy expertise. We should have people with oil and gas expertise. All our industries should have a voice at the table. Everybody\u2019s going to be at the table, have a voice at the table, and we will make sure we don\u2019t cut back [on those agencies].<\/p>\n<p><b><i>NMPR<\/i><\/b><b>: Along those same lines, the Martinez administration pulled back state agencies focused on natural resources, like NMED, the Office of the State Engineer and the Interstate Stream Commission. Those agencies have lost expert staff, reduced some programs, and they won\u2019t talk to the press anymore. Often, you can\u2019t even get a public information officer to answer your questions. What direction will these agencies take under your leadership?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Apodaca<\/i>: We would have open government\u2026 And some of these departments, you\u2019re not getting public information because they probably don\u2019t have people to get it to you. I\u2019m not all about blowing up the government \u2014 I think sometimes we rely too much on government jobs in our state \u2014 but we do have to make sure we\u2019re filling the positions.<\/p>\n<p>I think that\u2019s one of the biggest problems. Something people don\u2019t talk about is, we\u2019ve lost $600 million to $700 million a year in tax revenues, based on what we\u2019ve lost \u2014 over 100,000 jobs, and 57,000 New Mexicans have left our state. When you lose jobs and you lose population, you lose revenue.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>NMPR<\/i><\/b><b>: What steps will your administration take on Texas v. New Mexico &amp; Colorado, the Supreme Court lawsuit on the Rio Grande, which is handled by the attorney general and its contract attorneys? If you were governor, how would you guide that case or those negotiations?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Apodaca<\/i>: The governor is limited, because that\u2019s the attorney general\u2019s job. But I would push the AG, [and say], \u2018Let\u2019s go fight that in the Supreme Court.\u2019 And the argument has to be: Today\u2019s world is a lot different than when these pacts were put together.<\/p>\n<p>We have to sit down at the table, and not just Texas and us and Mexico. We have to sit down with the federal government, the [U.S. Army] Corps of Engineers and the private sector and say, \u2018Here\u2019s the plan for the next 300 years.\u2019 It can\u2019t just be New Mexico and Texas, but if you look at the drought that\u2019s coming, it\u2019s literally seven western states [that will be affected by drought].<\/p>\n<p>As governor, I will lead an effort with all the western states and say, \u2018We\u2019ve got to solve our water problems.\u2019 I\u2019m an ex-athlete and I\u2019ve been successful in pulling together public and private sectors. Why? Strength in numbers. If New Mexico tries to solve all our water problems like this by ourselves, we will probably fail.<\/p>\n<p>We will solve some of our problems. But that\u2019s why we have to start cleaning our brackish water. [The compact] doesn\u2019t say we have to give [Texas] water from the Rio Grande. It doesn\u2019t say we have to give them surface water. If we can clean it, and it\u2019s water that\u2019s usable, why can\u2019t we send them that water?<\/p>\n<p>Our political leaders immediately think, \u2018Let\u2019s fight over it, let\u2019s get in a lawsuit, let\u2019s battle it out.\u2019 I think the opposite. I think a Supreme Court battle is the last thing we should be doing.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing we should be doing, is [asking], \u2018Can we sit down? Can we renegotiate? Can we talk about it?\u2019 But if we\u2019re relying on the snowpack, if we\u2019re relying on surface water, then we\u2019re going to have a major problem.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>NMPR<\/i><\/b><b>: What didn\u2019t I ask you about, or what environment or natural resource issues in New Mexico don\u2019t get enough attention?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Apodaca<\/i>: I don\u2019t think we talked about renewable energies enough. We have a plan to invest a billion dollars into renewables.<\/p>\n<p>I think we can take $100 million and invest in New Mexico technologies and New Mexico renewable energies. Talking to our U.S. senators\u2026 we have literally passed on about $400 million of renewable federal grant matching funds because the governor has to ask for it, and we\u2019re not doing it. [We could get about $200 million in those funds.]<\/p>\n<p>The other $700 million [could come from] PNM, which sits on $4 billion, and oil and gas. As New Mexico businesses, they have billions of dollars. At that same time\u2026 there\u2019s a trillion dollars in the world looking to invest into long-term debt financing in renewables.<\/p>\n<p>I talked to [companies based in Texas, California and Mexico] that want to come in and do this for us, but I don\u2019t want to partner. I want to do wind and solar because I want to own some of that revenue stream.<\/p>\n<p>We have a plan to invest a billion dollars\u2026 [and] part of that is upgrading our infrastructure. Our power lines literally go to Long Beach, California and southern California. \u2026 We\u2019re like the center of traffic control for the power lines, so we can tap into that. I think that would be about a $900 million to a billion dollar investment, and it would be a long-term, smart plan.<\/p>\n<p>We need to lead the country. We sit on a state that\u2019s ranked second in renewable energy capabilities. But we\u2019re ranked 48th in the country in production. It just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>A note from NMPR: All of this week\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5zi1j-3t5R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">candidate Q&amp;A\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0were edited for clarity and length, although we did not edit the meaning of candidates\u2019 answers. We did not include, however, tangents or off-topic issues candidates raised during the course of the conversations. It\u2019s also important to note that the candidate\u2019s answers aren\u2019t annotated and we don\u2019t point out any possible inaccuracies or misstatements. \u00a0<\/i><\/b><b><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn what Democrat Jeff Apodaca thinks about issues related to water, energy and climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":564419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,431],"tags":[2238,147,3587,107],"class_list":["post-564392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-qa","tag-2018-election","tag-environment","tag-jeff-apodaca","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564392","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=564392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}