The Guardian: Big Oil, Lobbyists & New Mexico’s Permian Basin

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(Here is an excerpt from an article published in the British newspaper The Guardian about the oil industry in New Mexico and the reaction of local authorities to the Biden administration’s decision to pause oil gas drilling leases on federal lands).

How big oil keeps a grip on New Mexico – with the help of a major lobbyist

When Joe Biden paused oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands earlier this year, the alarm bells rang in southeastern New Mexico.

Officials in Eddy county – which, along with neighboring Lea county, holds New Mexico’s share of the oil- and gas-rich Permian Basin – immediately worried about potential economic fallout.

“This news is exceptionally disappointing,” county manager Allen Davis wrote in an email to colleagues. “The message couldn’t be more clear: south-east New Mexico is not a business friendly for an industry that has sustained the state of New Mexico finances for decades [sic].”

Kayley Shoup, a Carlsbad-based organizer with the environmental group Citizens Caring for the Future, said local leaders are pushing a false narrative.

It “keeps our local community from having a seat at the table when it comes to this long economic transition that our country is and will be undergoing,” Shoup said.

Situated in the Chihuahuan desert of New Mexico’s staunchly Republican southeast region, Eddy county is a rural, industrial area, where the top employers are in the mining and oil and gas industries. And county leaders appeared to be depending on their influential allies, including the international lobbying firm FTI Consulting, to keep it that way.

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New Mexico Climate Change Task Force Seeks Public Input

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The New Mexico Climate Change Task Force encourages the public to participate in a new survey as the state seeks input to guide our ongoing climate work. Public input is a critical component of our climate strategy as we look to meet our emissions reduction goals, as well as boost the state’s resilience to the effects of climate change.

The work of the Task Force, which is co-chaired by the cabinet secretaries of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) and Environment Department (NMED), continued throughout the pandemic and subgroups were created to explore how to move our current strategies forward and develop new ones.

“Our state is proud of its diverse population, and we want to make sure our work is inclusive of every New Mexican,” said NMED Cabinet Secretary James Kenney. “We are committed to ensuring our climate strategy is an equitable one, and we can’t do that without your voice.”

Accomplishments to date include passage of the Energy Transition Act, new solar market development tax credits for homeowners and businesses, adoption of modern statewide building codes, completion of the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority (RETA) study on transmission corridors for renewable energy, and a statewide natural gas waste reduction rule. More accomplishments and strategies underway are detailed in the Task Force’s annual strategy document.

The survey results will be used to help the Climate Change Task Force prioritize new climate strategies over the next five years. The Task Force, along with a stakeholder advisory group, will review the survey results alongside data on emissions and economic impacts of different strategies. It will also be guided by a set of climate equity principles developed by community leaders and experts from across the state.

“Our work will be most impactful if all New Mexicans are represented in our climate plans,” said EMNRD Cabinet Secretary Sarah Cottrell Propst.

Take the survey

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(Surveys open through July 15, 2021)

KUNM to Feature Stockholm Water Prize Winner on Friday

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On KUNM-AM Radio’s “New Mexico People, Places and Ideas,” Friday, July 2, at 8:00 a.m.

Corrales resident Sandra Postel is the winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, considered the Nobel Prize for water is a special guest on this program on Friday morning. Host Stephen Spitz will begin the discussion with Ms. Postel’s latest book, “Replenish—the Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity“.

Further discussion will include: will there be enough fresh water for the ever growing world population and what is the outlook for New Mexico and the Western United States? All this and much more, with special guest Sandra Postel. Produced with assistance of Tristan Clum and Lynn Schibeci.