NM Democrat sees big future for state

Imagine a time when portions or all passenger rail in the United States are elevated for wildlife egress and a corridor between Mexico City and the Amtrak station in Shelby, Montana is a route to the Yukon River in Alaska intersecting with a bridge over or a tunnel under the Bering Strait connecting South and North America to Russia and the rest of Eurasia.

Las Cruces Democrat, Bill Soules already sees that time.

Two bills pre-filed in the state Legislature ahead of the session that starts Tuesday may pave the way for expanded rail service in New Mexico. Sen. William Soules (D-Las Cruces) introduced the proposals to bring a high-speed rail line through the entire state, and into Colorado to the north and Chihuahua, Mexico, to the south. The bills would allocate $500,000 for a feasibility study and $1 billion for the rail project itself. A feasibility study from the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority found that construction of a high-speed rail line in Colorado was doable and foreshadowed a possible vote on a plan in 2020. [NM train riders want to see investment in high-speed rail make it out of the station]

But wait, there's more! 

In 2021 the Bureau of Land Management sold a geothermal lease in Hidalgo County, New Mexico despite a 2016 blowout near a $43 million geothermal electricity plant erected by Cyrq Energy in 2013 when Republican Susana Martinez was governor. Cyrq Energy has four working geothermal projects including Lightning Dock Geothermal Power Plant near Animas. It's a 15.3 MW binary geothermal plant with two production wells and 7 injection wells that sells power to Public Service of New Mexico (PNM) with firm baseload power.

With New Mexico’s 60-day legislative session approaching, lawmakers have begun pre-filing bills in hope of getting them over the finish line and to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk this year. Among them, from state Sen. William Soules, D-Las Cruces, is a proposal to extend up to $16 million in tax credits for geothermal energy development at homes, businesses or agricultural facilities through 2033. The bill would authorize up to $9,000 per taxpayer investing in ground-coupled heat pumps tapping reservoirs of water brought to high temperatures by heat from the Earth’s core. If the credit exceeds what the taxpayer owes, the balance would be paid to them as a refund, under the draft bill’s language. The initial phase would expand on existing infrastructure used to heat greenhouses, hot springs and spas. A second phase, projected to take place during the 2030s, would be to develop advanced production capable of yielding 1 to 3 gigawatts of energy. [New Mexico lawmakers eye geothermal investments]

Also in 2021 the US Department of Energy awarded $12 million to seven projects intended to accelerate development of geothermal potential including $2 million to the University of New Mexico and $1.5 million to Montana State University. Geothermal mining has been a topic of keen interest in Montana for decades where radioactive decay heats groundwater.

ip photo: the Alvarado Transportation Center in Albuquerque is a multimodal transit hub.