San Juan Solar (300–500 jobs) plus Foxtail Flats and Four Mile Mesa (488 jobs) — are not only providing work opportunities, but preparing a workforce with the skills they need to work on renewable energy projects to come.
It’s the largest single investment in the county a decade. San Juan Solar alone brought $300 million into the county and generates $3.1 million in property tax revenue every year.
Together with San Juan Solar, that’s over $1 billion invested in the county’s solar buildout — the largest economic development wave the region has seen in a decade.
New Mexico has already secured tens of millions in federal funding to plug orphaned wells — including hundreds in the San Juan Basin — creating good local jobs.
New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act was built to make sure the people who worked to power major parts of New Mexico and Arizona decades aren’t left behind — with direct financial support, and more importantly, a path to new skills.
$10+ Million Paid directly to displaced coal workers. Through the Energy Transition Act’s Displaced Worker Assistance Fund, over 530 workers laid off from the San Juan Generating Station and mine received direct payments in the fund’s first phase alone.
Up to 2 Years Of paid training, education, or apprenticeship. Displaced workers who haven’t retired can access up to two years of support to build new skills — training that leads to careers, not just a next paycheck. Workers earn credentials in solar installation, electrical work, and other in-demand trades — qualifications they can carry into any job, in any state, for the rest of their careers.
Shutting down a coal plant or a well isn’t the end of the story — it’s the start of a new kind of work. San Juan County’s fossil fuel legacy left behind real, physical messes: millions of tons of coal ash, aging wells, and contaminated land, much of which can be cleaned up by the very workers whose jobs the transition away from coal and gas affected in the first place.
The scale of that work is well documented. State analysts estimate New Mexico’s total liability for cleaning up aging and abandoned oil and gas wells at $700 million to $1.6 billion statewide — real wells leaking methane and other pollutants until they’re properly sealed. And it isn’t quick work: even with a major boost in federal funding, the state has only managed to plug about 100 wells a year, meaning the current backlog alone represents the better part of a decade of sustained, skilled labor — with more wells likely to be orphaned in the years ahead. This is a jobs program that could employ crews for a generation, not just a season.
$43.7+ Million
Federal Funding
is already flowing to New Mexico to plug orphaned wells. Through the bipartisan infrastructure law, New Mexico has received tens of millions of dollars specifically to plug and remediate abandoned oil and gas wells — funding that puts skilled workers back to work sealing leaks and reducing pollution.
$20 Million
State Funding
for San Juan Generating Station cleanup, rolling out starting 2025. New Mexico’s legislature allocated funding to begin evaluating and remediating the ecological impact of the coal plant and mine site — real dollars, real jobs, right here.
~40,000 Wells
In the San Juan Basin
need eventual plugging and reclamation. Decades of oil and gas drilling left behind tens of thousands of wells — many aging, orphaned, or abandoned — that leak methane and other pollutants until they’re properly sealed. Plugging them isn’t just cleanup, it’s a multi-decade jobs program waiting to happen.
$700 M – $1.6 Billion
New Mexico’s total estimated liability for well plugging and cleanup
That’s the state’s current and near-future exposure for plugging and reclaiming oil and gas wells across New Mexico — a mess decades in the making, and a job that will take decades to finish.
(Statewide figure — San Juan Basin plus Permian Basin combined.)
59 Million Tons
Of Coal Ash
is stored at the retired San Juan Generating Station and mine. Decades of coal combustion left behind one of the largest coal ash stockpiles in the region — and cleaning it up safely is now its own economic sector.
San Juan Citizens Alliance created this website as an educational hub — a place to understand the region’s shift away from coal and gas, grounded in real data on jobs, health, water, and climate. We track this the Four Corners Clean Energy Transition closely and work to make sure it happens fairly, transparently, and in the community’s interest. Our goal is simple: the more people understand what this transition means for their community, the stronger public support and engagement will be in making it just and equitable for everyone who calls the Four Corners home.
Thank you to EcoFlight and Benjamin Hunter for their aerial images, and to Creative Geckos for other photos and design.
To learn more about the Four Corners Clean Energy Transition, what San Juan Citizens is doing, and how you can get more involved, contact us at info@sanjuancitizens.org.
