Bregman says San Juan County must be included in state economic plans
Sam Bregman said San Juan County cannot be left out of state planning as coal and power jobs fade, with 450 San Juan Generating Station workers already hit.
Sam Bregman says San Juan County cannot be an afterthought in New Mexico’s economic planning as the region absorbs the loss of major energy jobs and braces for more uncertainty at power plants that still anchor the local tax base.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate said the county and Farmington need to be part of state-level planning because the San Juan Generating Station closed in 2022, its four smokestacks were imploded in August 2024, and the adjacent San Juan coal mine is also shut down and being reclaimed. The plant outside Farmington once produced 1,600 megawatts of coal-fired electricity, and its retirement hit a region that has long depended on power generation, oil and gas, and related industries.
About 450 workers lost jobs at the San Juan Generating Station starting in 2020, many of them from the Navajo Nation. New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions officials said more than $7 million has been paid out through the Energy Transition Act’s displaced-worker assistance fund, with more than 350 direct payments made to workers trying to bridge the gap.
The larger concern now is what comes next. The Four Corners Power Plant had been expected to end its coal operations in 2031, but later reporting said Arizona Public Service was no longer committing to that date and could keep the plant running until no later than 2038, depending on other resource developments. That leaves San Juan County waiting on a transition that has already been delayed once, while workers, schools and local governments continue to shoulder the fallout.
Those stakes are visible in Farmington, the county’s largest city and economic hub, and across a county that the U.S. Census Bureau estimated at 120,340 residents on July 1, 2025. San Juan County’s unemployment rate stood at 4.7% in August 2025, above New Mexico’s 4.1% and the U.S. rate of 4.3%.
Local advocates say the costs of delay go beyond paychecks. The Central Consolidated School District said the San Juan Generating Station closure contributed to a 700% increase in student homelessness at one point, underscoring how a plant shutdown can ripple through classrooms, housing and county revenues at the same time.
Bregman said he has not spoken directly with Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett about the issue. For San Juan County, the question now is whether the state will move past broad promises and identify concrete industries, timelines and public investments that can replace the wages, jobs and revenue tied to the region’s energy economy.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
