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With over 100 days of sunlight, New Mexico Bill Richardson has been recruiting as many companies as possible that work, produce, or is related to Solar Power. So far, in 2010, there have been 2500 NEW jobs created.

In an interview with CNN, Mr. Richardson stated "although our state is small, we want to become the solar capitol of the world". New Mexico is no stranger to new technologies as they have long been a testing ground for military aviation and explosives. Over the past few years, new Mexico has been the new Hollywood studio set as well.

This state should be applauded for a couple of reasons. The first reason is this state has been  embraced new technologies, new methods of energy delivery, which also has a much safer impact to the environment. On one hand, it has been argued countless times that the nature of regulations and "impact fees" the government collects from traditional energy, such as electricity (and I suspect stock holders and special interest groups influence the government as well...) is the reason states and the feds have not promoted solar and wind technologies. This has always seemed rather silly to me especially at a time in which the people and market are ripe for something new, in particular jobs. In order to create new jobs, we need to expand markets and expand our exports. In particular, states and feds should be taking advantage of any and all industries that will create jobs. Because, with more jobs, there is more consumer spending, especially the fun kind. This consumer spending leads to a higher demand for products and services which creates more jobs.

One of the biggest companies that has made a positive impact on New Mexico's economy and job growth is Schott Solar, a German based company. They have been in business for 52 years, with a start in the late 50's making solar energy panels for the space industry. Over the years they grew in providing energy sources for industrial applications including ironically enough, the oil industry.

Why Solar

Primarily, solar energy is less expensive to produce, is considered "clean" energy (as there are no side effects in the development or production), and lets face it, most regions sun is plentiful. It is quite renewable and does not run the risk of being tapped out.

Would these new technologies displace and hurt traditional energy companies. I highly doubt it, but even if it did, so what, tons more jobs would be created in the industry. Most exciting to me is this gives us an opportunity to finally be the leader again in some industry and increase our imports, particularly from a region that has a high amount of instability and many groups that wish to destroy America. We are borrowing and buying more from overseas than we are buying, selling, and exporting our  domestic products. Shall I give a basic economics lesson and what GDP is and its value….

New Mexico should be commended for its willingness to harness and capitalize on its assets to meet the needs of the residents, in particular being green while increasing employment and helping the local economies. As of April 2010, New Mexico ranked #24 in the lowest unemployment rates, roughly 3% lower than the national standard.

Tags: Bill Richardson, Green Energy, Hollywood, Jobs, New Mexico, Renewable Resources, Schott Energy, Unemployment