The recently approved state budget sent to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham increases funds for environmental conservation efforts, but some say it’s not enough.
The budget would allocate funds to environmental agencies to support regulation of the state's oil and gas industry, expand firefighting efforts, and increase funding for state parks.
The biggest win was the passing of the $300 million Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund dedicated to funding conservation, agriculture, and outdoor recreation programs around the state.
The fund will help support state parks and protect surface waters.
“Heck, help fund soccer fields throughout the state. And so that's a great legislative win this session,” said Tannis Fox, senior attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center.
But Fox said she was disappointed that updates to the Oil and Gas Act did not move further in the session, especially since it has not been reformed since its inception in 1935.
“Emissions from oil and gas operations threaten the climate,” she said. “They threaten human health and the environment, and can create significant problems for frontline communities, which in New Mexico are disproportionately persons of color and persons of low income.”
The act would have regulated the transfer of oil and gas wells or facilities, required more financial assurances from owners and allowed conversion of oil and gas wells for energy storage.
A Senate memorial ultimately stalled out which would have requested the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to evaluate risks to humans and the environment from oil and gas facilities. It also asked the department to then explore setting minimum setbacks for those facilities from homes and schools. Those provisions were stripped out of the original Oil and Gas Act bill.
Julia Fay Bernal from Sandia Pueblo is executive director for the Pueblo Action Alliance.
“This is all very tied to the water issues in New Mexico, which is very important to Indigenous and rural land-based communities, acequia communities,” she said. “That industry is using a lot of water and this is going to impact those communities.”
Bernal said the state and industry are working together to over-extract and over-exploit the region.
“Which is causing all of these other health impacts and all kinds of other issues, water contamination, groundwater contamination,” she said.
Indigenous and environmental groups have opposed the strategic water supply bill.
That bill was a priority of the governor and aimed to create a market for brackish water among solar and wind manufacturers and for use in hydrogen fuel. A controversial proposal to also use treated wastewater from oil and gas production was removed earlier.
The bill was tabled Tuesday in the Senate Conservation Committee, only to be resurrected hours later by the same committee and passed on a “no recommendation” vote according to Source New Mexico. But ultimately it didn't pass.
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