The Carlsbad Current Argus reported several executives from national producers expressed their optimism during the Carlsbad Mayor’s Energy Summit, Thursday at the Walter Gerrells Performing Arts Center.
The annual event was intended to court businesses to operate in the area and inform the community on the industry’s growth.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham thanked the gathered crowd of industry leaders and supporters for producing the revenue needed to support her agenda statewide.
“The whole world is looking at us, is excited about what is happening here. I grew up in Santa Fe, but I’m the kind of gal that like to get out where the money is made, not just where it’s spent,” she said.
“I’m an advocate for the state of new Mexico, that means I’m an advocate for southeast New Mexico and all forms of energy including the fossil fuel industry.”
Lujan Grisham touted her administration’s success in increasing teacher salaries, and vowed to improve roads and infrastructure in southeast New Mexico, in return for an about $2 billion state budget surplus credited to revenue from extraction operations.
She said she planned to invest up to $400 million in state funds to improve roads across the state.
“New Mexico is now leading the country in innovation and investments in public education. We called it a moonshot. You delivered the resources to make that a reality,” she said.
“If we don’t address these roads we actually create a problem for the industry that gives us the ability to make these capital investments.”
“It’s good for New Mexico, and it represents an exciting leap forward.”
“What you’re doing is leading the country,” Lujan Grisham said. “We’re making sure the researchers, the scientists are going to do the research alongside the industry to reuse that produced water.”
She also touted growth in the state’s wind energy industry, claiming the state is becoming a national leader in renewable power.
“This is an incredible set of circumstances created by incredible leadership,” Lujan Grisham said. “Even better things are coming.”
