This is your weekly news roundup, which takes a quick look at some developments in government, politics, education, environment and other topics across El Paso.
El Paso Electric Proposes New Solar Farm in Northeast
El Paso Electric last week asked Texas utility regulators to let it build a new $328 million solar farm and battery array in far Northeast El Paso, around the utility’s Newman natural gas power plant. It would start operating during summer 2027.
EPE proposed the project, which will feature a 100-megawatt solar field with 100 megawatts of battery storage, in a Dec. 27 regulatory filing submitted to the Public Utility Commission of Texas. It adds to the list of numerous major solar and battery projects EPE is trying to develop before the end of this decade. One megawatt is enough to power a few hundred homes, depending on the time of day and weather.
Even before proposing the new Northeast project, EPE was adding four other major solar farms in and around El Paso totaling 580 megawatts of capacity. EPE expects all four to start operating by the summer of 2026. Those include the Hecate and Milagro solar fields in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, a solar project in Luna County, New Mexico, near Deming, and another solar farm near Fabens, Texas.
In the filing last week, EPE also laid out early plans to develop five other solar and battery facilities by 2029. The utility said it must add new sources of electricity not only to replace outdated 60-year-old power plant units, but also because El Paso homes and businesses are using far more power than the utility previously expected, largely because more El Pasoans are shifting to power-hungry refrigerated air conditioners. And rising average temperatures here mean a building requires more electricity to stay cool than in the past.
If all of the projects come to fruition, that would mean EPE by the end of this decade could have around 1,400 megawatts of solar capacity and nearly 1,000 megawatts of battery storage capacity.
That would mark a massive shift in the energy landscape of El Paso, where about 39% of the city’s power today comes from the Palo Verde nuclear power plant outside Phoenix, Arizona, and 56% from fossil fuel power plants that mostly run on natural gas. Just 4.4% of the current electricity supply in El Paso comes from solar panels.
EPE added its first major solar farm in 2023, a 120-megawatt facility near Chaparral, New Mexico. By comparison, solar and wind in 2024 made up 35% of the electricity supplied on the ERCOT grid that serves most of Texas outside El Paso.
If the PUC approves EPE’s new solar farm in Northeast, the utility said it would cost the average household an extra $2.54 per month beginning in 2027, although that figure could change.
Court of Criminal Appeals Blocks Order in Walmart Mass Shooting Case
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has placed on hold a ruling by an El Paso appellate court that ordered the judge in the Walmart mass shooting case to toss three “ex parte” orders he had issued.
The state’s highest criminal appellate court issued its ruling Tuesday, after defense attorneys for accused mass killer Patrick Crucius appealed a writ of mandamus issued Dec. 9 by the El Paso Eighth Court of Appeals that ordered 409th District Judge Sam Medrano to vacate three rulings he had issued after hearing from defense attorneys but not the prosecution.
The District Attorney’s Office challenged Medrano’s three rulings, which involved two directives that the jail preserve surveillance video of Crusius in detention, and another order prohibiting the jail from providing unspecified medical treatment to the defendant. Prosecutors said the ex parte orders weren’t allowed under a 2023 Court of Criminal Appeals decision, and the Eighth Court agreed.
The Court of Criminal Appeals ruling sets aside the Eighth Court of Appeals order to allow the higher court to review the legal arguments. The District Attorney’s Office has three months to outline its arguments with the Court of Criminal Appeals.
How to Recycle Your Live Christmas Tree; New Year’s Trash Collection
Taking down your live Christmas tree this week and don’t know what to do with it?
You can recycle it anytime through Feb. 7 at no cost at any one of six citizen collection stations across the city.
You do not need to show a water bill to drop off the trees. However, you do need a water bill and matching identification if other items such as hazardous household waste, bulky items or other household waste is being disposed of along with the tree.
Trees can be dropped off at 2600 Darrington Road; 1034 Pendale Road; 121 Atlantic Road; 4501 Hondo Pass Drive; 2492 Harrison Ave; and 3510 Confederate Drive.
If your trash and recycling day was Wednesday and didn’t get picked up because of the New Year’s Day holiday, the city’s Environmental Services Department reminds residents that the gray and blue bins will be collected on Saturday, Jan. 4.
Information: 915-212-6000 or ElPasoTexas.gov/ESD.
UTEP to Boost Doctoral Grads, Defense Research Under National Program
The University of Texas at El Paso will help lead a new five-year project that aims to increase the number of doctoral graduates in technical fields from throughout the 22 members of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities.
The main goals of the Hispanic Serving Research Institutions Research and STEM Education program include the generation of more graduates from the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields who can advance defense-related research, improve collaboration on best practices, and identify and guide top undergraduates to apply for graduate schools in the alliance.
The U.S. Department of Defense will fund the program with a $9.3 million grant.
Key components of the initiative include cohort-based fellowship advising for graduate students, graduate student fellowships, competitive research opportunities focused on DoD technical priorities and leadership programs for faculty and students.
The program’s principal investigator is Azuri L. Gonzalez, executive director of the HSRU alliance and director of partnerships and operations at UTEP’s Diana Natalicio Institute for Hispanic Student Success. Her co-PIs are Shery Welsh, executive director of UTEP’s Aerospace Center, and Grace Bochenek, director of the School of Modeling, Simulation, and Training at the University of Central Florida.
In a prepared release, Gonzalez called the project a “transformative” step to increase involvement among underrepresented student groups.
Cynthia Larive, chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and alliance chair, said in the same release that this program is a critical step to keep the U.S. at the forefront of global scientific and technological advancement.
City Employees to See Minimum Wage Increase in February
The city will increase its minimum wage for non-uniformed employees to $15.75 beginning Feb. 23. The minimum wage was raised to $13.61 in September, where it currently stands. The increase to $15.75 will have an impact of about $1.7 million to the city’s general fund in the next fiscal year that runs from Sept. 1, 2025, to Aug. 31, 2026.
About 1,490 city employees will receive that minimum wage raise, with the average annual salary increasing about $2,969.
City Manager Dionne Mack said during the Dec. 17 meeting that the goal is to raise the city’s minimum wage to $17.24, but did not give a timeline to implement the increase.
The post El Paso Electric proposes solar farm; Walmart shooting case order blocked; how to recycle your live holiday tree appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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