At the start of this year, we met with one of our partners, Interwest Energy Alliance (Interwest). If you’re not familiar with Interwest, they are a leading regional driver for the responsible expansion of renewable energy in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
Rikki Seguin, Interwest’s Executive Director, spoke with our team about how renewable energy expansion fared last year during the pandemic.
Interwest’s membership consists of utility-scale renewable energy developers and manufacturers. Together, they work to consolidate data from large renewable projects to demonstrate to decision-makers the importance of renewable energy to our economy. Right now, for instance, Interwest is witnessing something truly exciting. Several counties in New Mexico are bringing in more gross receipts tax revenue than in 2019, a pre-pandemic year, in large part because of wind development! This is a prime example of a data point that Interwest brings back to legislators.
In our conversation, we also discussed how the dip in New Mexico’s oil and gas industry is affecting our overall state budget. Interwest feels strongly that renewable energy can aid our state’s budget deficit crisis. Construction of renewable projects in rural communities means more jobs, more support for local businesses, and more property tax revenue to support community needs.
Interwest made an important point that selling electricity is extremely cost-competitive, and New Mexico’s stable business environment and competitive tax structures are things that upcoming project developers will be attracted to in the coming years. In order for New Mexico to continue to attract new renewable energy facilities, it will need to maintain its competitive edge.
Like ReNew Mexico, Interwest Energy Alliance is looking at the current legislative session as an opportunity to bolster renewable energy development. Interwest and ReNew Mexico agree: we need our officials to recognize and showcase our state’s renewable energy potential and ensure that policies passed this session won’t impede our state’s green energy potential.
To learn more about Interwest’s work, check out their website: https://interwest.org