By JOHN ORTEGA
Questa Mayor
In June of 2014, Chevron announced that it would cease operations at the Questa mine site for good. That day, 300 employees were told they no longer had a job, and Questa’s economy was devastated.
When I was elected as mayor in March 2022, I was told that we were awarded a Department of Energy Communities Local Energy Action Program (LEAP) grant for a green hydrogen feasibility study. This study, conducted through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), showed that hydrogen production was feasible in Questa using solar panels, water and the unused mine tailings property.
The study was done in collaboration with Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, and many partners participated, including Questa Economical Development Fund (QEDF), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Sandia National Laboratory, Chevron and New Mexico State University. An economic impact study funded by the LOR Foundation and conducted through the Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University also supported the project.
Both studies showed that the hydrogen project could create approximately 20 long-term jobs and hundreds of jobs during the build-out phase.
The Village of Questa relies on gross receipts tax (GRT) for its operating budget, which pays for office employees, the police department and the EMS department. Our annual GRT is a little less than $1 million per year. The economic impact during the build-out is expected to generate millions of dollars in GRT revenue during those years.
Through our partnership with Kit Carson Electric, they have offered the Village of Questa the opportunity to seek funding for and own the solar facilities tied to the project. This would generate an annual revenue for the village of $2.5 to $2.9 million over a 20 to 25-year period.
That revenue would allow the village to hire more police officers, firefighters, EMTs and public works employees—jobs not included in the original economic impact studies. It would also give us the much-needed matches for grant funding we apply for to repair roads and add sewer and water lines. The sale of this power to Kit Carson Electric will also create an annual GRT to further support our budget.
The village is currently seeking grant funding through the state as well as federal tax credits to fund this solar facility.
This project has also attracted other businesses to Questa, which are exploring opportunities to build greenhouses, much-needed housing and even a hotel in the future. I have also been approached by residents interested in starting businesses to supplement the hydrogen project. This means more jobs and more GRT for the Village of Questa.
This is the start of Questa’s recovery from the mine shutdown. Questa has always been an energy community, and this project will allow us to continue that tradition while creating jobs, expanding economic opportunities and enhancing our first-response services and public works departments.
