June 2019 – New Mexico Society of Professional Engineers

NSPE Annual Meeting – Innovation & the Future – June 7, 2019

Posted on June 12, 2019 by nmspe.state

Thank you for attending!

Based on the interest expressed by the members in earlier conferences, the NMSPE Board decided to put emphasis at this Annual Meeting on topics related to recent legislative bills, electrical issues of new technology and economic impact on New Mexico. After a careful search of the local and national talents, following is a list of highly qualified speakers that were selected and arranged:

1. Michael Lunn, Illuminating Engineering Society. Topic of his talk was “Networking Lighting Control Systems”.
2. Dennis Romero, PE, Public Works Director, City of Gallup. His talk was on “Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project: A Progress Update”.
3. Gary Oppedahl, Vice President of Emerging Technologies, Emera Technologies. Topic of his talk was “Microgrids”.
4. Tom Fallgren, Vice President of Generation, PNM. Talk was on “Generation, Transmission, and Distribution: PNM’s Path to a Zero Carbon Emissions Future”.
5. Abbas Akhil, PE, Renewable Energy Ventures, LLC. His talk was on “Energy-Related Bills in the 2019 Legislative Session”.
6. Raj Solomon, PE, New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. His talk was on “Engineering-Related Bills in the 2019 Legislative Session”.
7. Tim Cummins, Robin Dyche CCIM, Bob Gomez, and Tim MacEachen CCIM, SIOR of Rio Real Estate Investment Opportunities. Their talk was on “Oasis of Opportunity Central New Mexico Rail Park”.
The concluding session was on “Ethics”. Arthur Schwartz, CAE, Deputy Executive Director & General Counsel, NSPE, traveled from Washington DC to discuss “Ethics Cases” in the last 2 hour of the meeting.

Annual Meeting was well attended by more than 125 members and participants.

View Event Photos

Pipeline Safety Legislation Comes to Congress

Posted on June 10, 2019 by nmspe.state

The Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act was introduced in Congress in April as a response to the gas pipeline explosion in Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts, last year that resulted in Leonel Rondon’s death and the destruction of several homes.

The federal bills (H.R. 2139/S. 1097) enact guidelines to increase pipeline safety by specifically requiring licensed professional engineers to approve plans for any “covered task,” which is defined in existing law as any activity, operations or maintenance, that is carried out on a pipeline and “affects the operation or integrity of the pipeline.” Additionally, the legislation does not allow companies to apply for waivers.

Currently, the legislation needs a hearing in either the House or the Senate, and NSPE government relations staff are contacting committee members to try to get this accomplished. NSPE members can contact their elected officials to express support for the legislation.

This federal action follows the lead of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who signed emergency legislation in response to the National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the explosion. The NTSB found that a professional engineer was not required to review or approve construction plans for the pipeline, and the board called for Massachusetts to immediately end this exemption.