EcoNewMexico.com

What: Global New Energy Summit 2010
When: Sunday, March 21 through Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Where: Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino (15 miles north of Santa Fe)

For many years high speed rail has been only a dream for most Americans, but that dream is slowly gaining momentum. Thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) several high-speed rail projects will now have funds to complete their projects.

Big City dwellers may take public transit for granted, but out here in New Mexico we're just getting familiar with it. The NM Rail Runner has been running between Santa Fe and Albuquerque for just over a year. Now, thanks to shortfalls in local tax revenues weekend train service may be eliminated. Of course, it was weekend service that helped popularize the NM Rail Runner in the first place. Argh!

The Santa Fe Community Convention Center (quite a mouthful) has just earned the LEED Gold certification. This means that the new convention center 'was designed (by Santa Fe-based Spears Architects and Fentress Architects) and built using strategies aimed at improving ...

Harvest festivals have existed for thousands of years, probably as long as farming has. A successful crop harvest is plenty of reason for celebration. While Thanksgiving in the United States is held on the fourth Thursday in November, the fall harvest usually happens much earlier. The Santa Fe Community Garden in the Railyard held their harvest festival in mid-October. The gardeners celebrated both their veggie harvest and the first year of community gardening in the Railyard.

Are you ready for the start of ski season? Stock up on excitement and gear over the next two weekends in Santa Fe. Watch 'In Deep' Nov. 6th and 'Flakes' on Nov. 15 at the Jean Cocteau Theater for deep powder fun and big mountain thrills. Pick up new boots, boards and bindings, clothes and assorted snow sports gear at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center during the Santa Fe Ski Team Swap from Nov. 13 through 15. Read below for dates, times and locations and mark your calendar for some pre-season stimulation. Until then, Think Snow!

WHAT: 350.org International Day of Climate Action in Santa Fe, NM - Human 350 Postcard, Coal March, Procession of Trees, and Critical Mass Bike Ride to the Roundhouse, and Rally to demand action on climate change, plant trees, and deliver a powerful message (both literally and figuratively) to our representatives.
WHEN: Saturday, October 24, 2009 1-4PM
WHERE: 1:00 CCA – for 350 Human Postcard, 2:00 March to Roundhouse departs from CCA and marches down Old Pecos/Old Santa Fe Trail. Rally at Roundhouse (West side).

The phrase 'Smart Grid' has been thrown around quite a lot recently. Unfortunately, it isn't clear to many of us what a 'Smart Grid' actually is. Some folks at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque have built and are testing one of the first pieces of the future smart grid - a smart building. The Mechanical Engineering Building at UNM has a newly refurbished solar-thermal energy array that provides 90% of the building's heating needs and 35% of its cooling.

Good news for the Four Corners region and everyone downwind of the proposed Desert Rock Coal Power Plant. The EPA has been ordered to remand (i.e. revoke) the Air (pollution) Permit that had been granted to Desert Rock Energy Company LLC. The Environmental Appeals Board held that the permit had not properly considered the possibility of CO2 capture. Coal-fired power plants have many other dirty problems beyond CO2 emissions, including mercury and other heavy metals pollution. But perhaps most notable is the problem that Carbon-capture coal plants simply don't exist!