Clean energy measures signed into law (NM)

[jpak]

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/57979.html

SANTA FE (AP) - Sunny, windy New Mexico is the "clean energy state," Gov. Bill Richardson said Monday as he signed into law two measures that encourage the production of electricity from renewable sources.

The bills quadruple the use of clean electricity by 2020 and establish a Renewable Energy Transmission Authority to help export solar, wind and other renewable energy.

The legislation "shows the nation that states move forward while the Congress is in gridlock and the Bush administration is just a spectator," said Richardson, who is campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 and was just back from Iowa.

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Under current law, 5 percent of the electricity from the state's three large investor-owned utilities must come from renewable sources, and that goes to 10 percent by 2011. The new law requires 15 percent from renewable sources by 2015, and 20 percent by 2020.

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