SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 20

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2012

INTRODUCED BY

Bernadette M. Sanchez

FOR THE ECONOMIC AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THAT THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO MAKE THE ENERGY INDUSTRY A CENTRAL COMPONENT OF THE STATE'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY.

     WHEREAS, the energy industry has many advantages as the basis for an economic development strategy in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, energy industry activity is in all thirty-three counties of the state; and

     WHEREAS, the energy industry has a long history in the state, and that history provides New Mexico with a competitive advantage; and

     WHEREAS, energy industry output enhances the state's export economy; and

     WHEREAS, the energy industry is a high-wage industry and has large income and employment multipliers; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico has abundant natural resources to support the energy industry; and

     WHEREAS, there is a constant demand for energy output; and

     WHEREAS, scientific and technological advances allow for safer and more environmentally friendly practices for the energy industry, and those practices will continue to improve; and

     WHEREAS, the energy industry is critical to the economic health of rural areas of New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico is ranked fifth in the United States in proven reserves of crude oil; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico is ranked sixth in the United States in proven reserves of dry natural gas, which reserves include much of the San Juan basin, which is the nation's largest field of proven natural gas reserves; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico is ranked twelfth in the United States in coal production; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico has the second-largest identified uranium ore reserves of any state in the nation; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico ranks seventeenth in the United States in total wind energy capacity, and five percent of New Mexico power in 2010 was generated by wind;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the state promote New Mexico as an energy industry state and make the energy industry a central component of the state's economic development strategy; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the secretary of economic development and the appropriate interim legislative committees.

- 3 -