HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 41

49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2009

INTRODUCED BY

Jeannette O. Wallace

A JOINT MEMORIAL

URGING THE NEW MEXICO CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO SUPPORT AN AMENDMENT TO FEDERAL LAW TO ALLOW HOT DRY ROCK GEOTHERMAL ENERGY PRODUCTION IN THE JEMEZ NATIONAL RECREATION AREA.

     WHEREAS, state, national and world leaders recognize the need to develop renewable energy production capacity and facilities to address decreasing fuel supplies, rising energy demand and the need to reduce fossil fuel dependence; and

     WHEREAS, it is in New Mexico's and the United States' interest to promote the development of clean, renewable energy from geothermal, solar, wind and hydro power sources; and

     WHEREAS, the ability of hot dry rock geothermal energy production technology to produce utility-grade energy was proven under a twenty-four-year research project, which was conducted in what is now the Jemez national recreation area under the auspices of the United States department of energy and Los Alamos national laboratory, in cooperation with the United States forest service, New Mexico's energy, minerals and natural resources department, the New Mexico department of environment and the office of the state engineer and with the approval of the United States environmental protection agency; and

     WHEREAS, hot dry rock heat-mining technology involves the generation of electricity with conventional power plants that are supplied with heat provided by the pressurized circulation of water through reservoirs created in deep, hot crystalline rock by wells drilled several miles into the earth; and

     WHEREAS, unlike wind and solar power, hot dry rock geothermal energy is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, using the vast store of naturally available heat deep in the earth; and it provides a clean, renewable energy source that has virtually unlimited capacity to generate electric power; and

     WHEREAS, the hot dry rock project at Fenton Hill in the Jemez national recreation area was decommissioned in 1998; and

     WHEREAS, a fully operational hot dry rock facility at Fenton Hill would provide ten to twenty megawatts of clean, renewable power twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to Los Alamos and the surrounding area, which would be enough power for ten thousand homes; and

     WHEREAS, reopening the hot dry rock facility at Fenton Hill would create thirty temporary jobs and ten permanent jobs, ranging from technical and mechanical to scientific and managerial, for the region; and

     WHEREAS, reopening the facility would create secondary businesses and jobs in the energy, engineering, technical, manufacturing, assembly and management sectors; and

     WHEREAS, United States Public Law 103-104 established the Jemez national recreation area in 1993 and restricts geothermal leasing within its boundaries;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that it support the reopening and redevelopment of the hot dry rock energy production facility at Fenton Hill; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the New Mexico congressional delegation be urged to support an amendment to federal law to permit geothermal leasing within the Jemez national recreation area; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the members of the New Mexico congressional delegation.

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