oil and gas

New Mexico’s top environment official says the federal government is going to move forward with addressing high levels of ozone in parts of the Permian Basin by the end of this year, ramping up air quality regulations in the highly productive and profitable oil and gas region. The state is ill-equipped to take on the additional work, according to State Environment Secretary James Kenney, which could mean losing its permitting power to the U.S. government.

As a top oil and gas producer, New Mexico has some of the strictest emissions rules in the country. That includes a state Environment Department rule that went into effect last year that aims to reduce ozone-causing air pollution by 260 million pounds a year. However, Environment Secretary James Kenney says the agency is falling short on enforcing the rules and is asking the Legislature to help change that.

A report from the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks sounds the alarm on harm from oil and gas development on four national parks, calling on the federal government to do more to protect them. Half of the parks are in New Mexico, the second-leading oil-producing state in the country.

Consultancy finds the state's revenue projections could be overstating aggregate revenues from oil and gas by between $26 billion and $36 billion over the next 15 years.

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 2023 legislative session is in full swing; with representatives and senators settling in and discussing bills. KUNM spoke with Gwyneth Doland, a political correspondent for New Mexico PBS, who was in Santa Fe this week talking to lawmakers about their priorities for this 60-day session and how it feels to be back in person.

Two measures in the House of Representatives new rules package are regionally significant. One measure makes it easier to transfer federal public lands and the other supports oil and gas development.

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.

The money targets at least 277 high-priority polluting wells on federal public lands in nine states, including Utah.