Dear Citizens of Los Alamos County,
I would encourage everyone to click on the link provided in the Los Alamos Resiliency Energy & Sustainability (LARES) Task Force and Katie Leonard’s message. It is the Charter for the LARES which clearly states in bullet three: “Study and recommend County government policy and other steps to phase out use of natural gas consistent with Department of Public Utilities conservation goals.” Within the LARES documents lists, the dates bandied about for Natural Gas Elimination are 2035 and 2030. Please read the Charter for the LARES, and their associated documents. Everything I said is in there OR in the report they delivered to the County Council in June of 2021. The LARES wants to rewrite the building codes: Insulation Values for new and existing buildings, replacement water heaters cannot be natural gas fired, new windows should be triple paned (due to our altitude and cold climate). They have also included a section about composting, but they forgot in their previous iteration of that rejected program (SAYT) : “I live in an apartment and don’t want a bag of compost (garbage) sitting around for two weeks waiting to be picked up”. No, you the Citizen will not be voting on what portions of the LARES Report will be implemented, the County Council will be voting on what fuels you can use, how your house is insulated, and what type of water heater and heating/cooling system can be in your house.
I would like to leave you with one final thought on this topic. I got a copy of the petition which created the LARES Task Force, which in its charter states it wants to phase out use of natural gas in Los Alamos County. There are people who signed the petition to eliminate natural gas use in your home, while simultaneously owning and using a natural gas fired driveway heater (burns natural gas, heats ethylene glycol, pumps it through tubes OUTSIDE to melt the snow off their driveway so that they don’t have to shovel snow). Los Alamos County also owns many of these systems. One rule for YOU, a different rule for ME! Straight out of Animal Farm.
Truthfully,
Mike Dempsey