{"id":26233,"date":"2011-02-18T08:37:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T15:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=26233"},"modified":"2011-02-18T08:37:26","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T15:37:26","slug":"a-promise-to-future-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/02\/a-promise-to-future-generations\/","title":{"rendered":"A promise to future generations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Ray Powell<\/p><\/div>\n

As land commissioner I focus all of my efforts at the State Land Office\u00a0on working with our outstanding public employees to help generate more jobs, revenues and projects that enhance the quality of life of our local citizens while protecting the long-term health of our public lands.<\/p>\n

That may sound like typical political rhetoric,\u00a0but I look at the New Mexico Land Office and our $9 billion permanent fund as our promise to future generations. If we degrade or sell the land, or squander the permanent fund, we have violated our promise to current and future generations.<\/p>\n

In my previous term, I worked with our local communities to facilitate affordable housing; day care and senior centers; soccer, football and baseball fields; regional recreational facilities; business parks; master-planned communities; outdoor educational opportunities; and nature preserves. I pledge to work again with our local communities to determine the best uses of state trust land in their local area.
\nNew Mexico has been blessed in so many ways, one being our extensive non-renewable resources \u2013 oil, natural gas, coal, and potash \u2013 on our 13 million acres of public trust lands. The royalties from these non-renewable resources\u00a0have\u00a0helped educate every child in New Mexico while keeping our citizens\u2019 tax bills lower. Recently, the contribution from the trust lands and permanent fund to our public schools, universities, and hospitals has been $500 million per year.<\/p>\n

We have additional great news \u2013 New Mexico state trust lands\u00a0provide land for the important work of agricultural production. They also have enormous potential to produce renewable energy from wind, solar, geothermal and biomass.<\/p>\n

Revenue from these reoccurring resources can eventually bridge and surpass the declining revenues from the non-renewable sources. The energy produced from these renewable resources can also be sold and transmitted to other parts of our country to provide the important energy resources needed for national economic prosperity and a sustained quality of life.<\/p>\n

We also have the intellectual capital in our private companies and universities and in the military research facilities and\u00a0national labs in New Mexico to lead the world in\u00a0the development of technologies that optimize the development and use of both non-renewable and renewable energy. The State Land\u00a0Office can play a pivotal role in these efforts by providing lands to locate renewable energy production facilities, transmission lines and\u00a0commercial sites for renewable energy technology\u00a0research and production.<\/p>\n

Taking care of the land<\/h3>\n

While this all sounds great, we all\u00a0choose to live in a place that we enjoy and where we feel connected to the land. Therefore, if we don\u2019t look at the big picture\u00a0over a long period of time \u2013 with regard to\u00a0the\u00a0health and resilience of our lands \u2013 then we degrade and despoil\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

These lands produce the food and water\u00a0that sustain us. Our public lands\u00a0also provide our\u00a0quality of life that makes living\u00a0in New Mexico such a\u00a0unique and exciting adventure. Being able to hunt, fish, bird watch and recreate on our public lands makes New Mexico a haven for all who love to be outside.<\/p>\n

Because of these public lands you don\u2019t have to be rich to enjoy the outdoors.<\/p>\n

Our efforts at the State Land Office to support our people must also provide life for all of nature\u2019s species that\u00a0call\u00a0New Mexico home. It is this rich diversity of life that attracts most of us to this special place and that will provide future generations with the same quality of life that we have enjoyed.<\/p>\n

As Aldo Leopold said, \u201cWhen we take care of the land, the land takes care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell<\/a>, a Democrat, is the state land commissioner.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I look at the New Mexico Land Office and our $9 billion permanent fund as our promise to future generations. If we degrade or sell the land, or squander the permanent fund, we have violated our promise to current and future generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[118,147,107],"class_list":["post-26233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}