Is ‘businessman’ the same as lobbyist?

I AGREE with Doug Turner that the freshman Representative from Sandia Pueblo, Derrick Lente, was naïve to refer to fracking as “the f-word.” But it is truly astonishing that Turner, who lost to Susana Martinez as GOP candidate for governor and has been around the political block, can be so thin-skinned about a generic insult. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that his employer, Agenda Global, lists Conoco Phillips, Chevron, BP, and the multinational petroleum and mining company BHP Billiton as clients.

It’s one thing for an ordinary “businessman” — as Turner signed himself — to write in with an opinion. It’s quite another for a lobbyist to play back the talking points of an industry client while trying to appear to be Joe Ordinary.

Chief among those talking points is that drilling and fracking have never resulted in “one documented case of water contamination or environmental mishap.” That was the industry line when attacking the water-protecting Pit Rule in 2008, while the state Oil Conservation Division’s own records showed several hundred oil well spills at the time. Fast-forward to a report released just four days ago, based on OCD data, showing 1,310 NM oil spills in 2016. Only a spin doctor could square that with “no environmental mishaps.”

The other endless spin is tying the fate of poor helpless children to the profits of a boom-and-bust industry. Funding education from oil may have begun with good intentions, but the industry uses that dependency to say that no one dare challenge them on polluting practices. At a time when state budgets are being slashed primarily because of the instability of oil prices, playing the kid card is particularly cynical.

There is a middle ground. Oil and particularly “natural” gas are needed as transition fuels and for essential plastics. But the state budget has to become independent, and the industry has to pay its own true costs of doing business. Oil and gas must obey the same tax and regulatory laws as any other business instead of expecting exemptions and subsidies. And its lobbyists need to identify themselves when publishing industry opinion. KIM SORVIG Research Assoc. Professor, UNM School of Architecture & Planning, Santa Fe