Capital & Main

Oil and gas money is all over the New Mexico Roundhouse. It accounts for 35% of the state budget proposal this year, according to the Legislative Finance Committee. It’s also in the campaign coffers of politicians on both sides of the aisle. It’s within this landscape that debates around expanding or restricting fossil fuel production take place.

Since 2020 the state has allowed oil and gas producers to temporarily stop running pumps because the pandemic economy was particularly bad for business. But despite the rebound in oil prices, there are still more than 1,000 wells sitting idle.

New Mexico reaped more than $1.7 billion dollars in oil and gas revenue in the first third of 2022 – that’s more than double the income from the same period last year according to oil and gas reporter Jerry Redfern from Capital and Main. He told KUNM that all the extra money comes with complications when it comes to budgeting for the future.

Earthquake activity has increased dramatically in southern New Mexico likely due to injection wells in the Permian Basin. These are used to store…