The will of the people

Since the San Miguel County commissioners have not regarded the health and the will of the citizens, we citizens are now demanding that we have a vote according to Section 4-37-6NMSA1978Comp regarding “The Industrial Wind Ordinance.” Our county attorney, Jesus Lopez, who is paid by all us hardworking taxpayers to represent the best interests of the people, once again has sided with the corporation, special interests, or as he says, “non-applicant.” We the qualified electors of San Miguel County, have a legal remedy in taking this “Wind Facility Ordinance” to a special election for its adoption or rejection. We, the people, are San Miguel County, and I will remind Jesus Lopez that he is an attorney and not a judge. Lopez’s opinion stating that we have no legal basis for this special election is just his opinion.

I have been in the planning and zoning office over 10 times since the Dec. 20 commission meeting, and the revised ordinance will not be available, they say, until after the February commission meeting. Combine this with the pathetic fact that not one of the commissioners or officials sitting above the people had the respect to speak into their microphone so that the public could hear them — especially Commissioner Nicholas Leger — as each of at least 15 changes were brought to vote. Even after numerous requests by the public, they disregarded that simple and reasonable request. It saddened me to watch people leave the meeting because they could not hear. Shouldn’t there be competency hearing for our representatives about this?

The following are only a few of the reasons that this ordinance needs to be put to a public vote:

• Setbacks were changed from three miles to a half mile. Expert testimony and health concerns were blatantly disregarded and discarded as Nick Leger again and again sided in favor of the corporation, trivializing the health and will the citizens he has sworn to represent.
• G. Loren Toole, senior R&D engineer, working for D-4 Energy and Infrastructure Analysis at LANL, considers (according to the factors given to him by the county commission for an official scientific opinion) “that a three mile setback or greater is a technically defensible distance.”
• Health affects of giant industrial turbines (already being addressed in lawsuits) were not even slightly considered by our commissioners, including vibroacoustic disease, elevated cortisone levels, anxiety from blade flicker, heart rate and pulse elevated, and not enough consideration given to environment, wildlife, bird migration and bat deaths.

The citizens task force that worked for 2-1/2 years to come up with acceptable and compromised protections saw Nick Leger butcher section after section, completely disregarding the task force 2-1/2 years of research. Particularly offensive was the lack of respect for Dr. Eileen Mulvihill, resident of the Bernal Mesa area, and her expert health testimony.

We the citizens of San Miguel County demand a vote to decide the fate of this ordinance.

Miguel Pacheco
San Miguel County