When I was 17 working in the oil fields of Southern New Mexico for $1.50 an hour, I never imagined that I would one day be running for Congress. But even now, over 40 years later, our country faces some of the same problems it did when I was a hand on an oil rig.

Congress needs someone who understands the oil and gas industry, and who is ready and able to work with alternative energy. For too long, our energy policy has been dictated by extremes, none of which are willing to work together to find a comprehensive solution to the mess we’re in.

I want to change that.

In Southern New Mexico, I built a company that now employs over 250 people in the energy sector. As a County Commissioner, I worked to bring an enrichment facility to Southeastern New Mexico. And as a private citizen, I have been hard at work to get solar and wind farms to Southwest New Mexico.

Washington needs that kind of experience. Experience that knows how to space out a well, and experience that realizes one day, that well will run dry.  And it needs experience that knows how to do all this while respecting the environment.

But most of all, our working families deserve it. They deserve an energy policy that will lessen our dependence on foreign oil, reduce the price at the pump, and will again work for them.  Until all sides come to the table, we’ll just recycle the energy crisis of the 1970’s and of 2008.

And that’s one renewable we can’t afford.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized .