Three NM Bills could Impact Oil and Gas Industry
A bill before the New Mexico Legislature would halt approval of new drilling permits within a mile of school facilities starting in July.
According to New Mexico Public News Service, three bills are under consideration to curb oil and gas pollution is under consideration by New Mexico lawmakers.
New Mexico is the country's second-largest oil producer and a top gas producer behind neighboring state Texas.
Rep. Debbie Sariñana, D-Albuquerque, co-chair of Elected Officials to Protect America and chair of the group's New Mexico Leadership Council, believes policy changes are needed to protect children from pollution and prevent fresh water from being wasted during the state's ongoing megadrought.
Despite what some believe, she argued the bills are not designed to shut down the industry, which she acknowledged is important to the state's bottom line.
"We're just trying to regulate the industry, so they're not operating in a way that wastes our fresh water," Sariñana explained. "They have to operate according to basic environmental and public health principles."
The bills would limit the use of fresh water in oil and gas operations, impose mandatory fines for chemical spills, and establish stricter setbacks from school facilities as a means to create child health protection zones. A spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association said it is watching the bills, and supports those "grounded in science."
Sariñana said she's determined to change how New Mexico gets energy from fossil fuels and transition the state to clean renewables. She feels strongly adults and children who live near oil and gas wells should not be inhaling byproducts and getting sick.
"What makes these people who live in that area so 'not important' that we as a state believe gas and oil should be doing what they want?" Sariñana asked. "These people are getting sicker, and they're front line people and Indigenous people. They're people of color, and they're just as important as everyone else."
Recent studies have shown living near oil and gas wells increases a person's exposure to air pollution and thereby increases the likelihood of illness. New Mexico has several towns in the middle of oil fields as well as schools next to fossil fuel well sites.
A California Blueprint?
California’s Geologic Energy Management Division, known as CalGEM, only approved seven new active well permits in 2023. That compares with the more than 200 it had issued by this time last year.
The stalled approvals represent the latest tension between California's bold environmental ambitions and its role as a major oil and gas producer and consumer.
New drilling permits have steadily declined since Gavin Newsom became governor in 2019, but the current rate of approval represents a sudden and dramatic drop.
"It's just fallen off the cliff," Rock Zierman, chief executive of the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), said in an interview. The industry has more than 1,400 permit applications for new wells awaiting CalGEM approval, half of which are more than a year old, he said.
California also passed a law last year banning oil and gas drilling within 3,200 feet of structures including homes, schools and hospitals. But CIPA has blocked implementation of that law by qualifying a referendum to overturn it for the November 2024 ballot.
Nearly half of the wells with rework permits approved this year are within the contested buffer zone.
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