MercuryNews | With tens of thousands of people across New Mexico without natural gas service, Gov. Susana Martinez on Thursday declared a state of emergency, ordered all government offices be shut down Friday and urged schools to "strongly consider" remaining closed for the day.Demand has soared because of extremely cold weather across the state since Tuesday. New Mexico Gas Company said rolling blackouts in West Texas also impeded the delivery of natural gas into New Mexico.
Martinez declared a state of emergency for all of New Mexico, urging residents to turn down their thermostats, bundle up and shut off appliances they don't need for the next 24 hours.
She later announced all state operations not providing critical services would be closed Friday to decrease the strain on energy resources throughout the state.
"Due to statewide natural gas shortages, I have ordered all government agencies that do not provide essential services to shut down and all nonessential employees to stay home" on Friday, Martinez said after meeting with public safety personnel in Albuquerque.
"I have also encouraged all schools that have not already announced closures to strongly consider doing so," she said.
New Mexico Gas Company said service was disrupted throughout the state—in Bernalillo, Placitas, Taos, Questa, Red River and parts of Albuquerque, Silver City, Alamogordo, Tularosa and La Luz.
Emergency shelters were set up in several areas. Martinez said residents needing help finding a shelter or getting to one should call the non-emergency police or fire phone number in their community.
"As New Mexicans, we've always gotten through difficult situations," she said. "We will get through this situation as well."
5 comments:
Well Well Well - who said the S.W. and South of the USA is going to have problems as the climate acts ugly?
This was a complete shocker to me, and warrants additional examination to try and find out the what, why, and wherefore of a statewide supply failure
Event-driven drop of 5% in available national supply....,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/us-newmexico-natgas-idUSTRE7130IE20110204
Frigid weather throughout the region knocked out natural gas production equal to nearly 5 percent of daily nationwide demand as wells froze and plunging temperatures caused problems for processing plants.
The crunch was exacerbated by unusually high heating demands. Production at the wellhead was shut off at facilities across Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez declared a state of emergency and called on residents to lower thermostats, pile on warm clothing and forgo the use of unnecessary appliances for the next 24 hours to conserve energy.
Emergency shelters were in operation around the state, and nonessential state workers were sent home. Many schools dismissed students early.
The New Mexico Gas Co. said high demand prompted by the extreme cold -- single digits in many areas -- coupled with power outages in neighboring Texas were to blame.
"States across the Southwest are experiencing similar situations. Our pipeline system is intact, and our crews are working to minimize the impact of this temporary situation," the utility said in a statement.
Supplies were cut in New Mexico communities from Tularosa in the south to Taos in the north, including parts of Albuquerque and numerous Native American pueblos, disrupting service to more than 25,000 customers overall, the gas company said. As of midday, the capital city of Santa Fe had not been affected.
Many people in southern areas never thought cold weather would effect them.
They had rolling blackouts in may parts of Texas as well.
But natural gas in short supply?
I thought people were bragging about the US having enough natural gas to last for decades?
The problem is that production plants cost a lot of money to build, pipelines add more cost cost.
Our plants are working at near capacity - shouldn't new plants have been near the top of the "Shovel Ready' projects promised by Obama?
these regulated monopolies (utilities) been avoiding capital expenditures like the plague. not only that, but the boilermakers in possession of the large-scale plumbing and chemical engineering knowledge to erect all that new capacity have been and continue to be fully booked at ultra-premium billable rates in China.
serious conservation and energy efficiency programs should've been job 1. in Obama's "shovel ready' initiatives. by-and-large, however, those shovel ready projects just turned out to be nothing more than compulsory digital power meter projects sponsored by the utilities themselves - power meters that will double or triple consumer energy bills and enable the utility to centrally shut you off for slow or non-payment.
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