State officials open application process for displaced power plant, mine workers fund
The leader of a state agency says she anticipates between 400 and 600 people will apply for help under a fund set up to provide financial relief to workers displaced by the closure of the San Juan Generating Station and Westmoreland San Juan Mine.
Sarita Nair, the cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, was part of a large contingent of staff members from her agency who traveled to San Juan County on Tuesday, May 2 to kick off the application process for the money, known as the Energy Transition Act Displaced Worker Assistance Fund.
Those staff members were on hand in the Multipurpose Building at McGee Park between Farmington and Bloomfield that day to walk those displaced workers through the application process in an effort to get the $12 million that has been placed in the fund into the hands of those who need it.
Each worker whose application is approved will receive $20,000, Nair said.
“We’re ready for any number (of workers) that show up,” Nair said, noting that her department’s staff members were planning to be back at McGee Park on Wednesday, May 3 and at the Nenahnezad Chapter house in Fruitland from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, May 5 to help process applications.
Nair said those submitting an application likely would receive a determination letter within a couple of weeks alerting them whether their application had been accepted. Within two weeks of the arrival of that letter, she said, they would be free to come pick up their $20,000 check at the Farmington Municipal School District building at 3401 E. 30th St. in Farmington.
That means the money could start making its way to displaced workers by late May or early June, she said.
According to a news release issued by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, applications must be completed in person. Applicants must bring with them a driver’s license, state-issued ID or tribal ID. They also must bring with them proof of current residence or their residence at the time they were laid off. That would include a gas, electric, water, auto insurance or phone bill that shows their address.
The application process is open only to New Mexico residents who were terminated from employment or whose contracts were terminated due to the abandonment of the San Juan Generating Station and adjacent coal mine, the release states, including employees of the power plant, the mine, AIMS and Savage Services.
Nair said those who live outside New Mexico are ineligible to apply for the funds.
The money in the fund came from the Public Service Company of New Mexico, as agreed upon under the terms of the Energy Transition Act, which was passed by the state Legislature in 2019. That measure also provided for the closure of the plant and the mine as the state began its transition toward low-carbon or renewable energy production.
But it took four years for the money to become available to displaced workers, Nair said, explaining that litigation over the closure of the plant delayed that process. She said state lawmakers also had to appropriate the money after it had been received from PNM.
Nair said she shared the feelings of some of those workers who were on hand Tuesday morning when they expressed frustration about the length of that process.
“This money would have done a lot of good if it had been done sooner,” she said.
She began her remarks by talking about growing up in Pennsylvania’s steel country during the 1980s, a time when the city of Pittsburgh and nearby locales lost a significant portion of their population because of the decline of that industry.
“Sadly, there wasn’t this level of support (for those displaced workers),” she said.
Nair said getting the money in the displaced worker fund into the hands of laid-off employees has been a passion of hers since she took over as secretary of the agency in August 2022.
Also on hand Tuesday morning was Kirtland Mayor and state Rep. Mark Duncan, who said he watched the planned closure of the power plant and the mine begin impacting his community as early as three years ago.
“We watched family after family leave in search of another job,” he said.
Duncan bemoaned the fact that the displaced worker fund took so long to get out.
“I think we’re a couple of years late,” he said. “Had this money hit the ground a couple of years ago, some of those folks may have stuck around and decided to start businesses.”
Nair said the $12 million in the fund was based on estimates that up to 600 people would be eligible for the $20,000 payouts. If the number of applicants is less than that, she said, an Energy Transition Act advisory committee would issue recommendations this summer about how the balance should be spent.
The Farmington office of the Department of Workforce Solutions will be holding a job fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 4 at the McGee Park Convention and Multi-use Center, 41 County Road 5568. Job seekers are encouraged to come dressed for success and to bring their resume.
Onsite assistance with resume building, job searching and online applications will be available, according to a news release, and employers will be conducting interviews on the spot, with some hiring done at the event.
Call Amy Carlson at the New Mexico Workforce Connection at 505-566-4212 or Tracee Loughran at 505-566-4268 for more information.
Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.
This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Application process begins for displaced power plant, mine workers
