Can New Mexico Buy A Future?

It doesn't have water, but it has cash if you have big ideas

We’ve been traveling through New Mexico for the past week, and all you hear about is how thirsty the state is – both for water and technology.

I will not claim to be a New Mexico water expert after a few days on the ground, but the stories of dire times have been relentless. One woman we met lives in the mountains near Albuquerque where people have been digging their own wells and tapping into the local aquifer for decades. The wells of all her neighbors have run dry, and the mountain folk are now trucking in water to get by. Not too far away, Elephant Butte Reservoir on the outskirts of Truth Or Consequences sits at two percent of its total capacity. Meta also has a huge datacenter complex in the area, but the locals want nothing to do with any more datacenter expansion if the great silicon farms are going to suck away whatever the aquifers have left.

New Mexico runs on oil, farming and tourism, and the feeling seems to be that the farming has about two decades left, the oil has three decades left and the tourism will have to work pretty damn hard to keep this economy going.

But there is hope. I guess.