New Mexico
Granholm says Inflation Reduction Act expanded manufacturing in America, New Mexico – NM Political Report
Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of the Department of Energy, spoke about how the federal Inflation Reduction Act has created jobs and led to business expansions during a visit to Albuquerque on Friday. While in Albuquerque, Granholm celebrated the groundbreaking of an expanded solar tracking manufacturing campus. Array Technologies is building a new facility in west […]
Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of the Department of Energy, spoke about how the federal Inflation Reduction Act has created jobs and led to business expansions during a visit to Albuquerque on Friday.
While in Albuquerque, Granholm celebrated the groundbreaking of an expanded solar tracking manufacturing campus.
Array Technologies is building a new facility in west Albuquerque in addition to an already existing site.
The new $50 million facility in west Albuquerque is expected to provide more than $300 million in economic benefits to the city over the next ten years.
The new campus will be about 216,000 square feet and will employ more than 300 people who will work producing, assembling, designing and engineering solar tracking technology as well as assisting customers.
Array received $2.5 million in economic assistance from the state’s Local Economic Development Act job-creation fund, and both Albuquerque and Bernalillo County provided $250,000 in LEDA funds as well as a partial property tax abatement through an industrial revenue bond.
The company is also benefiting from incentives in the federal Inflation Reduction Act, a 2022 law that includes the largest investment in addressing climate change in the country’s history.
In particular, Array Technologies says the production tax credit made the expansion possible.
Array Technologies is among hundreds of businesses nationwide that have benefited from the incentives available through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Granholm said that in the energy sector alone more than 600 companies have announced that they are expanding operations or opening up a facility in the United States because of President Joe Biden’s Investing In America Agenda. That agenda includes the Inflation Reduction Act as well as other key pieces of legislation such as the bipartisan infrastructure law and the CHIPS and Science Act.
Those expansions and new facilities represent tens of thousands of good paying jobs, she said.
“That’s just so far,” Granholm said. “These credits last 10 years to give industry certainty about expanding. And so we’re excited. Everyday we open up the newspaper and there’s another factory that’s announced that it is opening up.”
Granholm not only visited the groundbreaking at Array Technologies on Friday. She also headed south to Belen for a ribbon cutting at Arcosa Wind Towers, a wind turbine manufacturing facility that has also benefited from the Inflation Reduction Act. Arcosa previously hosted Biden during a visit last year where he described the facility as an example of the Inflation Reduction Act at work.
Granholm said that the Inflation Reduction Act has led to eight companies in New Mexico saying they will expand operations. Those companies include Array Technologies.
She said the United States has an incredibly low unemployment rate, which can also be seen in New Mexico.
“Part of that is due to this explosion of manufacturing across the country as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan infrastructure law, (and) the CHIPS and Science Act,” she said.
Granholm said New Mexico’s senators played important roles in drafting sections of the Inflation Reduction Act that have brought those benefits to the state.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat representing New Mexico, said at the groundbreaking that the three laws that Granholm referenced have “created incredible demand” for workers to fill manufacturing jobs.
“It’s a great time to be in the skilled trades or in manufacturing in the state of New Mexico,” he said.
He said the growth in the industry has led to challenges in filling job openings.
“Our biggest challenge right now is creating the workforce to fill that demand,” Heinrich said. “And that’s a good problem to have.”
One way that the Inflation Reduction Act is helping build that workforce is through incentivizing apprenticeships. The Inflation Reduction Act provides increased tax credits for companies that meet certain criteria including utilizing apprentices and pay prevailing wages.
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján described the Inflation Reduction Act, bipartisan infrastructure law and CHIPS and Science Act as job creators. He said the policies were focused on bringing back jobs that were no longer available in the United States.
He said those jobs are “now here and they’re in New Mexico. That’s why I’m so proud to be a part of this and to have supported this legislation.”
During the groundbreaking at Array Technologies, Granholm commented on the shirts that employees were wearing. The shirts all had the phrase #SolarJobs on their back. She said workers are crucial to the current industrial revolution.
She said the industrial strategy starts by “making America irresistible to investments.”
One way of doing that is through tax credits like those seen in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“We’re giving tax credits to manufacturers who supply these clean energy products, including trackers and of course solar panels, etc,” she said. “And we’re giving tax credits to utilities and to individuals to create demand for the products.”
The Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 and only one member of New Mexico’s congressional delegation opposed it at the time. That member was former U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, a Republican who was ousted from her seat a few months later by current Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat. Herrell is now running against Vasquez for that same seat.
The Inflation Reduction Act has brought more than just expanded businesses to New Mexico.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the state will receive $156 million to expand access to solar thanks to a funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act is also being used to expand access to clean water and to reduce emissions from the transportation sector.
New Mexico
New Mexico AG blames Meta for online predators as state charges 3 men accused of using firm’s platforms to solicit sex with underage children
New Mexico’s top prosecutor announced charges Wednesday against three men who are accused of using Meta’s social media platforms to target and solicit sex with underage children.
The arrests are the result of a monthslong undercover operation in which the suspects connected with decoy accounts that were set up by the state Department of Justice. The investigation began in December around the time the state filed a civil lawsuit against the social media giant, claiming Meta was failing to take basic precautionary measures to ensure children were safe on its platforms.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said during a news conference Wednesday that the suspects communicated and exchanged explicit sexual content through Facebook’s messenger app and were clear in expressing a sexual interest in children.
“It’s extraordinarily concerning to us just how easily these individuals found the undercover personas that were created,” Torrez said. “And it is, frankly, I think a wakeup call for all of us to understand just how serious these kinds of threats are.”
He placed blame on Meta executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and suggested that the company was putting profits above the interests of parents and children.
“For those of us who are engaged in this work, we are simply tired of the rhetoric,” he said. “We are tired of the assurances that have been given to members of our communities, to members of Congress, to policymakers that all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that this type of behavior doesn’t occur.”
Meta disputed the allegations and reiterated Wednesday that it uses technology to prevent suspicious adults from finding or interacting with children and teens on its apps and that it works with law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting offenders.
The company also said it has hired child safety experts, reports content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and shares information and tools with others to help root out predators.
“This is an ongoing fight, where determined criminals evolve their tactics across platforms to try and evade protections,” Meta said in an emailed statement.
While the state attorney general’s office will continue working to identify predators who are targeting children, Torrez said it’s too early to say whether that work will have a bearing on the civil litigation.
As part of that lawsuit, New Mexico prosecutors say they have uncovered internal documents in which Meta employees estimate about 100,000 children every day are subjected to sexual harassment on the company’s platforms.
The three defendants in the criminal case were identified as Fernando Clyde, Marlon Kellywood and Christopher Reynolds. Prosecutors are seeking to detain them pending trial on charges that include child solicitation by an electronic communication device.
Hearings have yet to be scheduled, and court records did not list attorneys who could speak on behalf of Clyde and Kellywood. A message was left with the public defender’s office, which is representing Reynolds.
A mandatory seven-day waiting period to buy guns in New Mexico goes into effect in exactly a week, on May 15.
SANTA FE, N.M. – If you want to buy a gun in New Mexico there will be a mandatory seven-day waiting period that goes into effect next week.
New Mexican Republicans tried to file a referendum to let voters decide if they wanted that week-long waiting period, but our Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said “No.”
Sen. Craig Brandt pushed for the referendum. He says the rejection is a direct hit on New Mexicans’ constitutional rights.
“We hear the Democrats all the time talking about democratic process and democracy and how Trump’s ruining democracy, or how the Republicans are ruining democracy. Well, and the fact of the matter is, in this situation, our Secretary of State is the one that’s keeping people from having a right to vote on this bill,” said Brandt.
Secretary of State Communications Director Alex Curtas says it was rejected because, under New Mexico law, there are specific criteria for the referendum review process.
“There’s a specific exception within the law that says any law that is particularly about something to do with public peace, health, or safety is exempt from that process. So there are other laws that could go through this process. But a firearm-related law is pretty clearly about public safety and health, so it’s exempted from that process,” said Curtas.
But Brandt disagrees and argues a waiting period isn’t about public safety.
“She’s just automatically rejected it saying it’s about public safety, peace, welfare. Nothing about this was public safety. There’s not a single shred of evidence, there’s not a single study that shows that a seven-day waiting period will make the community any safer, or has in any other state that it’s already being done. So, you know, she just kind of uses that as her catch-all,” Brandt said.
Brandt says the next step would be to file a federal lawsuit. But, right now, there are no plans to take that type of action.
Another option would be reviewing New Mexico’s Constitution.
“If there is a change in the law that broadens the scope of what laws are allowed to be subject to the referendum petition process, you know, that would be the will of the Legislature and the people presumably. And so we would just, you know, follow that guidance and those steps if those were in place. But the Secretary of State at this point is just following the law as it’s written,” said Curtas.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 129 into law back in March. It goes into effect May 15.
According to the governor, that’s double the current waiting period required by the federal government. The sale of a firearm without the waiting period or before those seven days are up would become an unlawful sale.
New Mexico will join at least 12 other states when HB 129 goes into effect May 15.
The other measure Lujan Grisham signed in March bans guns from polling locations. Firearms wouldn’t be allowed within 100 feet of polling places and ballot drop boxes. There are exceptions for law enforcement and concealed carry permit holders.
MORE:
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) – A large sinkhole swallowed two cars in front of a home in Las Cruces, New Mexico Monday.
The sinkhole is said to be about 30-feet wide and 30-feet deep.
The dangerous situation forced officials to evacuate the home, as well as nearby residents. The street is also closed to traffic until experts can determine the cause of the sinkhole.
One bright spot from this incident: Firefighters were able to rescue a set of golf clubs and a cart for a high school student who is set to compete in the state championships. Her clubs were trapped in one of the cars at the bottom of the sinkhole.
The firefighters figured out how to reach the car and pull the clubs from the hazard, teeing up the student’s chance to take a swing at a state title.
Now that’s a hole-in-one for those brave firefighters.
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