Days remaining in session: 30

Green measures: A pair of bills in the Senate, (SB318) and (SB420), aim to promote green jobs in the state. Sen. Eric G. Griego, D-Albuquerque, is carrying the bills.

One would require spending of a minimum of $1 million each year from the Development Training Fund for green industry development training.

The second bill would require the State Investment Council to invest up to 6 percent of the Severance Tax Permanent Fund in green industries.

“In addition to preparing ourselves to build a greener economy, in the case of the first bill I introduced,” Griego said in a statement, “we also need to position ourselves to take advantage of federal `recovery package’ monies.”

Bad actor bill Senate Bill 382 is dubbed the “bad actor” bill by the state Environment Department, but has nothing to do with films.

Sponsored by Rep. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, the bill would allow the state Environment Department to deny an air quality permit to an applicant with a bad track record of falsifying reports, giving misleading information on reports or committing felony violations of environmental laws.

Jim Norton, director of NMED’s Environmental Protection Division, said other environmental laws carry bad actor clauses, but not the air quality law. Norton expects the bill to be controversial.

SB 382 is scheduled for its first hearing today before the Senate Conservation Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Room 311.

Ben Ray’s YouTube: As the state Legislature debates webcasting, a New Mexico member of Congress is putting more of his videos on the web.

U.S. Rep. Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, now has a YouTube channel, his office said.

The channel will have floor speeches and videos from events in New Mexico and Washington, DC, as well as video commentary from the Congressman.

#The channel is at: http://www.youtube.com/user/Repbenraylujan

Looking Ahead:

— Today  is the last day of this 60-day session to introduce bills. Expect a flood. You can track bills at www.nmlegis.gov.

—- U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-Albuquerque, will address a joint session of the House and Senate this morning in the House. U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman visits Friday.

— Several bills pertaining to elections are on this morning’s agenda for the House Voter & Elections Committee. Among them are Rep. Diane Hamilton’s HB591, which would require voters to have a picture ID. Two bills calling for same-day voter registration, HB52 and HB395, also are on the agenda. But Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, sponsor of HB52, said the committee chairman asked him to postpone the hearing until next week. The other bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joe Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Quote of the day:

“The last time we talked about this, the gentleman asked me about Uranus. So I feel more comfortable talking about moons.”

— Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, discussing her House Memorial 40, which would establish Feb. 18 as “Pluto as a Planet Day.” Gutierrez carried the bill because Pluto’s discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh, is from Dona Ana County. Most astronomers no longer consider Pluto a planet. However the House passed the measure unanimously.