Time to Lead New Mexico!

This letter to the editor appeared in The Albuquerque Journal (3.10) and Santa Fe New Mexican (3.13).

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The sheer magnitude of the current economic vertigo, which is but a symptom of a much deeper structural energy and resource crisis, makes it mandatory for President Obama to validate, announce, organize, and deliver a big, fast, and equitable renewable energy “Manhattan Project in Reverse”.

We cannot keep treating every idea, suggested direction, pet patent, or special interest as equivalent.

Only solar-thermal and geothermal energy satisfy the requisite moral horizon as primary, clean, safe, and permanent sources.

New Mexico has these resources in abundance, along with three “diamonds in the desert”: LANL, Sandia, and Santa Fe Institute.

SJM 33, introduced by Senator Carlos Cisneros & Co-sponsored by Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, unapologetically presents New Mexico’s case and requests a minimal Federal down payment of $21 billion, and assign the headquarters of an urgently needed National Renewable Energy Administration to a city in New Mexico.

It is our time to lead, New Mexico!

- Matthew Ellis