Fossil Fuels

But a tax break for low-producing stripper wells gets slipped into a package with green energy breaks.

The oil and gas industry has increased non-election year contributions to New Mexico’s politicians as the state Legislature debated new regulation in the 2024 session. The industry boosted its contributions to Democrats, the current dominant party in the state, while trimming back donations to Republicans.

For three days, stakeholders with the automotive industry and the state have been making their case to the state Environmental Improvement Board and the Albuquerque-Bernalillo Air Quality Control Board as to why New Mexico is or isn’t ready for a serious transition to EVs.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham flew to Australia earlier this month with an oil and gas lobbyist and the head of a natural gas industry group to speak at a hydrogen conference. The trip came after a week of whiplash hydrogen news in the state, with a panel recommending money for hydrogen projects, the federal government snubbing a New Mexico-led regional hydrogen hub proposal and a state agency releasing a rosy outlook for the carbon sequestration needed for hydrogen production.

The Bureau of Land Management has proposed comprehensive changes to its rules for oil and gas leasing on federal land for the first time since 1988. The revision is designed to increase industry returns for taxpayers while also reducing harm to wildlife and cultural resources as part of the agency’s effort to better balance development with conservation. New Mexicans are invited to attend an information session in Albuquerque Tuesday to learn more about it ahead of submitting input.

This week, President Joe Biden went on a three day campaign blitz to show Americans in the Southwest what he’s been doing to help their day-to-day lives and how he’s tackling climate change in the meantime.

President Joe Biden is making his way around the Southwest to tout what he’s been doing to improve climate change, infrastructure and conservation amid one of the hottest summers on record. Biden’s latest stop was in Belen, New Mexico at the site of a new wind tower factory.

A grant process meant to help the Four Corners region recover from the closure of the San Juan Generating Station and reduce reliance on jobs from the oil and gas industry has resumed after a long hiatus caused by the world-wide pandemic.

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.

The Bureau of Land Management is set to auction off over 3200 acres of New Mexico’s land to oil and gas companies after public comment expires in early February. Amid a growing climate crisis, environmentalists are voicing their concerns with this expansion in fossil fuel development in the southwest.