I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
SANTA FE — That the economy continues to teeter was clearer than ever this week, when 800 employees at Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation were sent home on what the company said it hoped were temporary furloughs, and another 230 were laid off by Chevron Mining in northern New Mexico, affecting about 10 percent of the population of the small town of Questa.
Meanwhile, thousands lined up for a job fair Wednesday night organized by U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich at Alamosa Community Center on Albuquerque’s West Side.
Given these hard times, all eyes are on the economic stimulus package. But whether it’ll work for New Mexico might lie in how well-prepared our state is to leverage those federal funds.
A package of green jobs bills before the Legislature could be key for how the state uses money dedicated to clean energy, said John Fogarty, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group New Energy Econom. The final federal package provides potentially $1.15 billion for “green” jobs training, in a larger $113.5 billion package to stimulate a “clean energy” economy.
“These bills if passed would demonstrate one of the most comprehensive approaches to fostering a green economy in the nation,” Fogarty said.
And, he said, they’ll help New Mexico link the federal stimulus money to on-the-ground job creation and training.
“We keep hearing from our congressional delegation that the money will go preferentially to states that show they are invested in green technology and have made an effort to create green job training programs,” Fogarty explained.
The three bills together are a package, and would provide training through educational institutions, give support for green companies to hire workers and offer incentives for businesses to relocate to the state.
House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, is sponsoring HB 622, which would approve up to $20 million from a state revenue bond for higher education institutions to create green job-training programs. Priority for funding would be given to programs that help certain disadvantaged populations, such as tribal, rural or lower-income communities.
State Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, has sponsored two bills that direct existing money to support green job creation and training.
The definition of “green” in his bills is broad, he said, but the goals are clear: The outcome of the company’s work preserves or enhances “environmental quality” and provides “opportunities for advancement along a career track of increasing skills and wages.” In other words, qualifying jobs are those that are good both for the environment and the worker. It’ll be up to those who administer the programs affected by his bills to develop criteria for whether a company meets that definition.
Griego said his bills are modeled on the support given to the film industry, minus the 25 percent tax credit component.
Another bill, SB 318, would allow up to $1 million of Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) funds to help green businesses train their workforce.
The JTIP fund is one of the main economic development incentives offered by the state, but it’s limited to jobs created by companies that are net exporters — those that export more of their product than they sell inside the state. This means that mainly manufacturing companies are eligible. The current exception is the film industry, and this bill would add green jobs as an exception, regardless of what kind of company creates them.
And SB 420 would allow up to 6 percent of the Severance Tax Permanent Fund to be used for zero-interest loans of up to $15 million each to green companies — just as allowed for the making of films in the state.
The severance tax fund is an endowment fund into which tax revenues collected on natural resource extraction are placed. The fund’s primary mission is to retire debt on bonds issued for a wide variety of capital projects.
Griego said these loans would help smaller companies in the state “get up to scale” and become more competitive in trying to get support through the stimulus package.
Ahead of the game
New Mexico is ahead of the game when it comes to clean energy because of the work that’s already gone into building that sector, Rep. Heinrich, an Albuquerque Democrat, told the Independent at the Alamosa Community Center job fair.
“We have a leg up over a lot of other places because of the work that’s already happened here,” Heinrich explained. “We have [clean energy] businesses on the ground, as well as people who are ready to start businesses, plus the research institutions.”
But the tough economic times have dampened the growing clean energy momentum in New Mexico, Heinrich said.
“In my first 40 days in office, there’ve been a continual stream of people contacting my office who are ready and capable to start up [clean energy businesses], but there isn’t any lending happening,” Heinrich said. “What’s essential is getting the resources to people who are ready to go.”
Heinrich said that local, state and federal governments must work together to support the sectors likely to create jobs, like clean-energy industries.
And Griego — a former assistant secretary for the New Mexico Economic Development Department — said one of the biggest challenges with economic development, in any sector, is ensuring there’s a trained workforce for new jobs.
“It’s a huge problem,” he said. “We can talk green jobs all we want, but if we don’t fund these types of programs, we won’t get it going.”
