NM reaches settlement over air quality violations

A subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc. has reached an $800,000 settlement with the New Mexico Environment Department over air quality violations at a natural gas-fired power plant in southeastern New Mexico. The settlement, the largest reached by the department this year, will result in Southwestern Public Service Co. investing $500,000 in a solar photovoltaic array at Eastern New Mexico University's Roswell campus. The money will also fund an adjunct professor position in the university's renewable energy degree and certification program. Department officials said they plan to continue promoting supplemental environmental projects like the one at ENMU as a means of getting permit holders to pay for violations. "This settlement demonstrates our philosophy that monetary penalties ought to go back into projects that protect the environment," Environment Secretary David Martin said in a statement issued Wednesday...more