Oil advocate: Industry under assault in NM; state is prime target for environmentalists

Roswell Daily Record ^ | February 26, 2017 | RDR Staff

[CedarDave]

SANTA FE — Opposition to the shale oil extraction process known as fracking is growing, particularly among minorities, threatening the political viability of the oil industry in New Mexico, an oil and gas industry expert told state lawmakers Thursday.

Claire Chase, the government affairs director for Mack Energy of Artesia, said while state government is heavily reliant on oil revenues, New Mexico is the most vulnerable state in the nation to increasing opposition to fracking and fossil fuels in general. She said a new culture of protests and activism has the oil and gas industry in its sights.

Chase said New Mexico is the prime target for environmentalists who want to shut down oil production. “We are under constant attack on TV and in print and from the Legislature, and also especially in social media,” Chase said at Thursday night’s first annual Chaves County Legislative Dinner in Santa Fe. “And sadly, the target on us is not getting smaller, it’s getting bigger. And because of these factors, the industry and the communities that we serve have to start fighting back.”

“New Mexico is also a cheap date,” Chase said. “It costs a lot less to run a TV commercial here than it does in Texas or in Colorado, which means that the outside environmental groups can spend their money here and get far more bang for their dollars in promoting their causes.”

Chase said the state’s oil and gas industry contributes on average 33 percent of the state’s annual budget from permits on state lands, and almost entirely funds the state’s Public Education Department.

“I feel like we’re at risk of dying in this state, and that’s going to take the public education system and the state budget with it,” Chase said.

[CedarDave]

Full title: Oil advocate: Industry under assault in NM; Lobbyist says state is prime target for environmentalists

I've mentioned before in comments on other threads that the political climate in Santa Fe and adjacent Albuquerque is one of anti-fossil fuel pushed by national and local environmental groups with connections to national big money donors and to the progressive (i.e. radical) Democrats. The NM House of Representatives moved from Republican to Democrat last November and Republican Governor Martinez (though not that conservative) is term limited and will be replaced in 2018. The leaders of both the NM House and Senate are Santa Fe politicians with a far-left bent and I consider both US Senators as being radical environmentalists (Udall is Stewart's son and Heinrich has eco-terroist connections [http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/25/democratic-new-mexico-senator-worked-closely-with-convicted-eco-terrorist/]). If Martinez is replaced with a Democrat of the Bill Richardson type, science will be thrown out the window and all oil/gas policy and regulatory decisions will be based on anti-fossil/global warming emotion.

The Permian Basin is an oil rich area that crosses the Texas-New Mexico state line. If the radicals in Santa Fe get their way, Texas will reap the economic rewards while New Mexico will continue to hold its hand out for federal government largess.

[stinkerpot65]

Every environmentalist is a lying, totalitarian thug.

[CedarDave]

A slight change to my last sentence:
If the radicals in Santa Fe get their way, Texas will reap the economic rewards while New Mexico will continue to hold its hand out for declining federal government largess.

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[CedarDave]

Why stop there:

Every environmentalist Democrat is a lying, totalitarian thug.

[Bob434]

Under Assault? As in physical violence? And you folks haven’t arrested them yet? You are gonna let a small group of whiny l iberals bully you like that?

[vette6387]

Well they don’t call it NEW Mexico for nothing. Santa Fe is a rat’s nest of Socialist/Marxists. My wife’s cousin and her husband, who was a professor and university officer in a New England State, moved there in retirement. They are such rabid socialists, that we’ve chosen to discontinue any social interactions with them.

[CedarDave]

A couple of other notes from the article:

The Permian Basin is the most prolific oil-producing region in the United States, producing about 20 percent of domestic oil. Exxon-Mobil and Chevron are just two of the companies purchasing properties/leases in the Permian Basin; in the last two months alone there has been more than $10 billion of investment in the Basin.

Chase said more and more state lawmakers oppose the oil industry. Conservative Democrats are an endangered species; progressives are being elected from urban areas and are "decidedly anti-oil" and many elected legislators (and others locally) would like to see the industry disappear.

When asked what would replace the one-third revenue the industry provides, the progressives say clean energy renewables, ignoring that they are heavily subsidized by government, are unreliable, not subject to NM's severance tax, and basically have few full-time employees after the construction.

(Note: The article reporter was Jeff Tucker who was given credit at the bottom of the article.)

[cicero2k]

LOL, minorities hit the hardest:

By fracking?

Of all groups, they should support energy production. High paying jobs where physical hard work is well rewarded.

But their democrat party overlord plantation owners would rather the minorities become their voters, at the minorities peril.

[Vince Ferrer]

Too bad, because the areas with fossil fuels are pretty poor areas. They would benefit a great deal.

[DesertRhino]

NM is surrounded by successful economies in Colorado, Texas, and Arizona. Things like this are the reason.

[DesertRhino]

And it’s really sad. New Mexico is filled with things you find nowhere else. Certainly not so much astonishing variety in the same state.
And it’s infested with leftist ignorance.

[BestPresidentEver]

After the Spanish left the Apaches kicked the Mexicans out of Arizona and the Comanches kicked the Mexicans out of Texas. But the stupid Navajo didn’t kick them out of New Mexico. We should take their casinos away for this.

[stinkerpot65]

Cue applause!!