Legislature dropped the ball on oil industry

By: Gail Evans and Krystal Curley. Published as an op-ed in the Santa Fe New Mexican on March 12, 2024.

From an environmental perspective, this year’s legislative session in New Mexico could be summed up as one of missed opportunities.

During the 30-day session, the Legislature failed to make any progress to address the devastating threats oil and gas pollution pose to our residents’ health, the environment and the climate crisis.

Instead, our elected officials capitulated to industry pressure to block key legislation while championing bills that would perpetuate our state’s shameful reliance on fossil fuels.

During these abbreviated sessions, the governor effectively decides what legislation will get a hearing. This year, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham limited consideration of oil and gas reforms to her administration-backed House Bill 133, which contained no public health or environmental protections for communities living on the frontlines of oil and gas production. In doing so, she blocked other bills seeking to reform the industry from being heard.

Some of these blocked bills, sponsored by Rep. Debbie Sariñana, would have established health buffer zones around schools to protect children from oil and gas pollution, prohibited spills of toxic liquid waste from the oil and gas industry, and banned the use of fresh water in fracking.

They’re all common sense measures to reduce the burdens of oil and gas production and pollution in our state. Our governor killed these lifesaving bills before they could even be debated.

Meanwhile, Lujan Grisham’s HB 133 was further weakened through compromises with the oil and gas industry and stalled on the House floor, where it died without debate.

It’s bad enough that the governor failed to lead on curbing oil and gas pollution. What’s worse is that she championed proposals that would have further entrenched New Mexico’s dependence on the oil and gas industry and other dangerous, unproven energy technologies that distract from the real work of transitioning to a just and renewable energy future.

She threw her support behind bills that would have expanded hydrogen production, carbon capture and storage, direct air capture, the commodification of brackish water and oil and gas waste, and nuclear energy. Thankfully, these bills were met by fierce opposition from Indigenous and frontline communities and environmental advocates, and none became law.

When he introduced the Legislative Finance Committee’s budget recommendations for fiscal year 2025, Sen. George Muñoz wrote: “The strength in the oil and gas industry that has supported the revenue growth will end, perhaps suddenly with an unpredicted change in the market, but inevitably as the world shifts from the use of fossil fuels.”

In other words, oil and gas is on the way out, whether the New Mexico Legislature likes it or not.

Now is the time for the state to assure a just and safe transition away from fossil fuels by putting in place adequate financial assurances, pollution controls, and public and environmental health protections for communities living on the frontlines of oil and gas production.

The Legislature also must begin investing in proven community-supported solutions like wind and solar.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pave the way for an equitable and renewable energy future. Let’s make sure our leaders don’t squander it.

Gail Evans is a New Mexico-based attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Krystal Curley is executive director of Indigenous Lifeways, an organization exposing environmental racism and economic exploitation and protecting sacred sites in the Gallup/McKinley area for over 30 years.