Paddy Mac, Dean and Singer Do Gas on Local FM Radio

Albuquerque Journal, Feb. 7, 2011: “18,000 Homes Lack Gas.” Late Sunday afternoon, Gas. Co. officials indicated to the Journal that only “10 percent of service was restored” in Taos. 

Here’s the question arising on radio this morning: Why aren’t out-of-town crews being guided by local town, county, and Coop employees who have an idea where the meters are in the neighborhoods? Eh? We’re only asking.

If you want the latest news on gas rejuvenation and rehab, listen to the rock’n roll twins, Michael Dean and Jeff Singer at 95.9 FM. They’ve got stories to tell about con artists and the latest twists on pilot lights. Singer, the DMC Broadcast manager, has been nominated for a New Mexico “Dodad Award,” (community friendly radio guy) and  might soon be managing the town, too, from his booth high above the 16 quadrants. Observers say the Mayor & Manager battle might lead to the return of his highness, “Mr. Viva Viva” but we say let “Singer do it.”  

(How can there be more than “4” quadrants, a reader asks? Call it utility math!)

Relighting (According to Connelly, Feb. 6): Taos natural gas relighting will start this morning at approximately 9 a.m., Sunday, 2/6/11, according to field crew management on the ground here in the Taos area.

All structures with natural gas service have been turned off. Between now and 9 a.m., “purging” of the system will occur – noise/a gas smell is part of this process. You need not be concerned about it — it is part of the process.

Taos’ residential and business community has been divided into 16 quadrants (approximately equal in customer numbers, but geographically different in size due to this). The meter relighting field crews will be addressing each section simultaneously in a nonstop blitz.

Someone needs to be present in each structure for the relighting process. If someone is not there, crews will leave a “blue tag” with contact information to call and get back on the relight schedule. The phone number on the blue tag is the New Mexico Gas Co. 24-hour Customer Service number. We do not know approximate lag times between the initial relight sweep, and rescheduled relights. Try to have someone present the first circuit.

Approximately 255 field crew members (NM Gas Co. staff, trained/qualified volunteers, and 25 National Guard personnel) will be in Taos today working together to expedite activity. National Guard representatives will be arriving at structures approximately 20 minutes prior to meter relighting field crews to make sure someone is home, make them aware of the arriving crews, make sure dogs are contained so crews can easily access meters, etc.

This relighting will undoubtedly go through Sunday night into Monday, 2/7/11. New Mexico Gas Co. indicates that if your meter has not been relit by sundown Sunday, please leave on available porch lights to assist crews. And please, also know that crews will be working throughout the night — they may have to knock and wake up occupants throughout the night to expedite the relighting process. The crews do need to come into structures and relight at least one operable natural gas appliance after turning meters back on in order to assure safety.

Monkey see; monkey do at Ojo

On Saturday, Feb. 5, my wife Deb and I drove to Ojo Caliente for a soak. Grand. It was just grand to soak in hot hot pools after going a few days without hot water due to the natural gas system shutdown. We arrived at 12 noon to an almost deserted spa. We were two of four in the iron pool, then two of two. Later we were two of three in the arsenic pool. Three of us jumped into the big cold pool to keep the hot juices balanced. The big pool wasn’t as cold as Lake Tahoe in the summertime. After checking into the steam room and using the sauna for our nightcap, we left at 1 pm–just as the crowds began to arrive.

On the way back from Ojo, I noticed little in the way of energy shortages among the independents who live “Off the Grid” on the West Side of the Rio Grande Rift. We saw the occasional truck hauling wood east from the Tres Piedras bio-fuel sources, headed toward Taos. During this period of systemic abuse by New Mexico Gas Co. (see below) it has become apparent that Taosenos open their doors to friends and family and even strangers during a time of crisis. And it is also obvious that the resourceful Taoseno isn’t trapped by the mono-cultural energy systems.

We’re glad to have our electricity, our propane, our wood stoves, our solar panels, our butane lighters, and camping stoves, our whiskey and our blankets and even our natural gas.

Your natives, old hippies, and hip customers of Terry’s Chimney Service and Tierra Wood Stoves maintain a relationship with our most secure energy providers—the so-called bio-fuel sources i.e. pick-up trucks and Olguins Sawmill. (Somebody will define the size and volume of a “Taos Cord” one day!) Wood remains the best and most secure fuel. The aroma and the 360-degree body warmth arouse atavistic memories.

(I’m told one of the KCEC Coop Propane board members heats his house with a high tech bio-fuel furnace.)

Our friends at Taos Pueblo, due to architectural design—low ceilings, thick walls, kiva fireplaces and wood stoves (supplemented by propane and electricity) don’t feel the pain of the disconnect at all. We here at Casa Whaley have a mix of basement (below grade) living, electric and solar, as well as wood heat in our house and natural gas, (now shut-off), too. During the next year, we’ll re-install a missing wood stove and probably a second wood stove in Deb’s studio, currently restricted to the electric grid.

Multi-source energy sustainability is the answer to corporate gridlock or the threat from Coop rate increases.

The combination of rural living and the apocalyptic mindset got the juices going for Taosenos last Thursday. Long lines at gas stations, emergency shipments of electric heaters, thanks to Ace and Wal-Mart, crowded grocery aisles (water and Tostitos), and wood haulers driving hither and yon. The media, I’m told, did a good job of keeping everyone informed, Paddy Mac on KTAO and Cathy Connelly at Town Hall, spinning out the medicine for this spontaneous cold snap.

Naturally, the big wigs, the Mayor and KCEC CEO jumped into the breach and preached safety and patience, while bragging up the new command center. The governor appeared for a reassuring photo op. Smart politicians know they must be present and making photos during weather crises. Hence you saw your community leaders on TV and in the press. The unsung gasmen and emergency technicians are still turning meters on as well as pilot lights.

Ironically, few individuals took advantage of the cots set up at the $3 million facility command center constructed by the Coop. Even the trustees stayed home. Taosenos share their hardships with their familiars like those at the homeless shelter or at home. “Even if she’s your ex but has propane, well, we’ll speak and get by.” Unconfirmed reports say that local liquor stores sent out for extra half-pints of whiskey—the poor man’s energy source. Some folks, who filled their gas tanks, spent the night in the comfort of their vehicles, the Taosenos’ most secure and sweetest suite.

Readers warn of the Great Conspiracy!

(1) All natural gas compressor stations do have back up power.

(2) Some were deliberately not switched to back up power in order to create the shortage.

(3) The companies that did this donated heavily to Susana Martinez. (Was Martinez sending Taosenos a message? Who did you vote for? We’re only asking.)

(4) The idea is to provide incentive for natural gas exploration, and reduce resistance to fraking (natural gas exploitation of the underground) in the state of NM.

(5) Consider an investigation into the Gas Co. This entire situation sounds like Enron… rolling blackouts to force customers to pay high rates for energy. Texas is not connected to the national grid so they have no way to add capacity. Why is the NMPRC allowing a NM utility to do business with Texas? (Editor: Hotel rooms near the Super Bowl site have reported outages, too.) PNM ran the gas company for 40 years without any gas shortages, now less than a few years this Texas outfit is failing big time. (Editor: I remember shortages in the past but we had more wood heaters then and I was so much younger.)

6. General Cross-Cultural Anxiety Being Voiced: Gov. Martinez will use shortage as excuse to drill for natural gas in the forest and especially Valle Vidal? Paranoid or realistic? You think about it, she’ll decide.

Let’s call it Y3K.

Another reader writes:

“I liken it to a mine disaster or an oil spill —- there was some incompetency, complacency,corruption (call it what you will) somewhere up the line. I think of families, of businesses closed, of all the people involved in staying on top of this hour by hour “taking care of business” like the shelters, getting the imp. info out — to those on dialysis, for example. It’s endless but you have to be without the gas to step inside this whole other world. I’m proud of our community. ”

The NM House Energy and Natural Resources Committee (HENRC) will hear from the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) and the New Mexico Gas Co. on the cause of the current gas shortages and outages in the state and efforts to restore supplies at 8:00 AM on Monday morning, February 7, in State Capitol Room 315.

A Third Reader:

“Shades of the gasoline “shortage” in the mid-70s.  Obscene profits for Exxon that year.  1976, if I remember correctly.  And they still haven’t paid up for the Exxon-Valdez damage to Alaskan shores and fishermen. This “crisis” has the same phony, noxious tinge to it.

“Early Thursday morning, February 3, a spokesperson for New Mex Gas Co. told me they had plenty of gas, just couldn’t deliver it due to lack of electricity to operate the pumps/compressors.  They had a fairly plausible story with the rolling blackouts of electric power due to higher than usual demands.  If we don’t ask why the back-up systems failed, that’s believable.  They were interested to know if the condition at my house was just low pressure or there was none at all.  They had me check boiler and hot water heater.  We determined low pressure.  I’m still smelling gas on Day Four around the pilots that cannot be lit.

“Although the Gov assured us this would all be over in two short days (25,000 homes between  Espanola and Red River?), I recall how long it took to restore gas after the Northridge earthquake — weeks.  I imagine it will be a good while before all of us can use gas again, a public utility owned by a private, non-transparent LLC.  Remember, that stands for Limited Liability.”

From Justin Bailey

“My friends Keith and Marisol are running the Morning Star Farm in Arroyo Seco; this is a great opportunity to get locally grown produce cheap, and support local business. Morning Star operates as a Community Supported Agriculture Farm (CSA), which means you can purchase a share, and get your produce every week–from the end of March to the beginning of November.

One full share will feed a family of four; a half share is great for a two adults. A half share comes out to $16.40 per week, which is about $8 per person per week to eat the best, healthiest, local food to be had. Please send this around to anybody who likes the idea of eating healthy, locally grown food. Here is a link to the farm’s website: http://www.morningstarfarmoftaos.com/

You can contact Keith and Marisol at 776-2141 or email them at morningstarfarm@ymail.com.