Our View

It’s hardly a secret that New Mexico is windy. For proof, just look out the window on most days in the spring and watch as dirt, branches, trash and (maybe) the kitchen sink blow by.

But with wind comes opportunity, as New Mexico and the nation learned this week at the release of the annual market report from the U.S. wind industry. Wind energy representatives came to New Mexico to tout their report — choosing our state because in 2017, it led the nation in growing its wind energy. We are first on one of the right lists, in other words.

Sitting down with representatives of the American Wind Energy Association, we learned something else. New Mexico has room to grow. The numbers that led the nation in 2017 are just the beginning.

Right now, New Mexico is obtaining 13.5 percent of its electricity generation from wind, enough to power 422,000 average homes. Some states have increased that percentage to around 30 percent, meaning that the state can diversify sources of power, increase its renewable energy portfolio and provide good jobs in rural areas just by continuing to do what has been working — perhaps in a more targeted way to speed up investment and growth. As coal electricity plants are shut down, for example, wind farms could bring both additional power and jobs to hard-hit areas of Northwestern New Mexico.

All of this is good news for a state that needs to diversify its economy from over-dependence on oil and gas. Having additional sources of tax revenue puts the state on a better financial footing and using renewable energy helps the Earth. But the state should not rest on its laurels, despite the encouraging news of 2017.

It’s time for New Mexico policy makers to start discussing whether to bring back the statewide wind-production tax credit that expired at the end of 2017 — and solar tax credits should be in the mix as well. To lead in renewable energy, New Mexico must be competitive with surrounding states. Growing wind energy is a win for New Mexico.

Let’s count a few of the ways. Improving the capacity for wind energy brings investment to the state, often to rural areas. Already, New Mexico has almost $3 billion in private capital investment to date. Having renewable energy available will draw in other types of businesses — access to wind energy and other renewables is a key reason for the $1 billion Facebook investment to triple the size of its New Mexico data center.

Near Portales, the Roosevelt Wind Farm is up and running and nearby is the future site of the Sagamore Wind Project — it will be the largest wind farm ever built in New Mexico, with another $1 billion of investment, this time in Eastern New Mexico. That means construction jobs and operation jobs, as well as tax dollars to local governments and public schools.

Wind energy sits side-by-side with other land uses, too. Cattle ranchers or farmers battling drought can lease their property, still run cows or grow hay, and pocket the payments, even in a bad year for agriculture. These dollars are needed in rural parts of the state where the economy has been especially hard hit.

Using wind energy to build our renewable sources of power is the right thing — and the smart thing — for New Mexico to do.

The growth needs to become strategic — let the farms be built, make sure we are training enough technicians for the country’s second-fastest growing job category and invest so that transmission lines will be ready to carry out the power once it is here. And consider where personal or neighborhood wind generators and solar collectors might make sense. Generating electricity closer to home helps avoid hundreds of miles of high-capacity power lines.

As we all know, New Mexico is a windy place. Let those gale forces blow us into a brighter future.