BP Oil Spill Stirs New Energy for Innovation at Congressman Teague’s ‘Re-Energize America’ Conference
Stephen Jones, Democracy for New Mexico
In the wake of BP’s disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill the Re-Energize America Conference held Thursday and Friday June 3 and 4 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces took on extra interest and urgency. The Conference included dozens of speakers from both traditional and emerging energy sectors, educators, as well as state and national government officials. The conference was co-hosted by Congressman Harry Teague and New Mexico State University.
While the tenor of the two-day conference was confident and upbeat, most of the speakers expressed an urgency for developing new renewable energy sources. Among the concerns expressed were environmental degradation, economic stagnation and national security. Many felt the United States was falling behind China, Japan, the European Union and India in building its renewable resource industries, and becoming dangerously beholden to foreign oil.
New Mexico’s future also was highlighted at the Conference. Many of the speakers stressed the state's abundant resources, including solar, wind, geothermal, biotech, nuclear as well as oil and gas unmatched by most other states, and New Mexico’s commitment to biofuel. Congressman Teague noted that southern New Mexico was well positioned to become a center for these emerging new technologies and pledged to continue to be a conduit in bringing the best national energy leadership together.
An algae-based biofuel startup was among the most talked about new energy projects at the conference. Sapphire Energy is developing a 300-acre site near Columbus, New Mexico that uses the non-potable saline water abundant in the area as a resource to grow what it calls “green crude.” Microsoft founder Bill Gates is among the leading investors in Sapphire, which has also established a new research facility in Las Cruces. Maria Zannes, outreach director of the Southwestern Biofuels Association, said the biofuels industry would eventually generate 60,000 jobs.
