One of the promises made by President Biden during the 2020 campaign was to change course from the Trump administration and aggressively fight climate change in every sector of our economy. He said his first target would be the re-invigorated domestic American oil and natural gas production sector.
My dad was transferred to Texas in 1972. Texas has been my home since then. You learn quickly in Texas that even if your father works in the paper industry like my dad did, you are also in the oil and gas business. As you mature, you become frustrated that the country that landed men on the moon still allows groups like the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to control our prices at the pump. I remember sweating in long gasoline lines in the family station wagon because OPEC got upset with us over global politics.
All those frustrations went away in the last decade because of American innovators that created directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies. The United States was again a net exporter of oil and natural gas. We had a strong economy and stronger national security.
On the campaign trail in 2020, there were pleas for a “Green New Deal” or “rejoin the 2015 Paris Agreement” or “no drilling on federal lands”. Biden heard these pleas. On his first day in office, he announced a ban on any new leases to drill on federal lands. The ban to this day awaits a promised new plan.
I am not going to debate these actions and rationales, but the drilling ban on federal lands bothers me.
Why punish states where Washington, D.C., controls huge swaths of land? Most states west of the Mississippi River fall into this category. These states depend on the royalties and jobs from drilling on federal lands for their state revenue.
Our neighbor to our west, New Mexico, gets hit the hardest. An updated December 2020 study by the New Mexico Tax Research Institute found that revenue from oil and natural gas production on federal lands in New Mexico provided $570.9 million for public education, $344.1 million for health and human services and $84.4 million for public safety.
Texans love to brag. We say, “It ain’t bragging if it’s true.” It is very tough for me to brag about another state, especially on oil and gas production. But the truth is New Mexico is way ahead of Texas in controlling harmful methane emissions. Two years before Biden was elected, New Mexico’s new governor and my former U.S. House colleague, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, set out to address methane emissions at the wellhead and to end flaring/venting. She and her team listened to all the stakeholders – big oil, environmentalists and Native Americans – and got them to agree on a plan that recently became official. The agreement was remarkable: 98% reduction in methane emissions by 2026 and an immediate ban on flaring. Lujan Grisham and New Mexico produced the ultimate trifecta for climate change.
They should not be hurt for leading America’s efforts to reduce harmful methane emissions.Let’s hope Biden realizes that instead of hurting New Mexico, he needs to reward Lujan Grisham’s efforts. Our president should follow Santa Fe instead of Paris.
Read it from abqjournal – Photo by Simón Marín from Pexels
