Balancing act on oil and gas no easy feat

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham campaigned as a climate change warrior — and is seemingly governing as one, a champion of moving away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy as rapidly as possible. That’s why her comments at the recent New Mexico Oil and Gas Association annual meeting hit such a discordant note.

To a room full of oil industry executives and others, she said the state departments overseeing the environment and energy “will not be at cross-purposes” with the industry on issues such as methane emissions and produced water.

“They are very clear that they work for you, that this is a state that has an all-of-theabove energy investment, that we will solve problems together,” Lujan Grisham said. “And if that’s not occurring, I need to know about it, because that’s the expectation I have.”

That is hardly the expectation of the people of New Mexico.

Yes, New Mexicans should work together to solve problems. Yes, at this point there is an “all-of-the-above energy” strategy. However, workers at the state Departments of Energy and Environment do not “work” for industry, at least not primarily. The people in those departments work for the people of New Mexico. Or they should.

Because the interests of regular people, in fact, can be at odds with industry muckety mucks, especially when the rush to make a profit means that environmental safeguards might be neglected. Our environmental regulators should be at cross-purposes with industry leaders who want inadequate regulation.

New Mexico is considering implementing what we trust will be tough standards to regulate the release of methane gases, stepping up where the federal government has fallen short. The state is considering how, and where, “produced” water — that is, water that is a byproduct of oil and gas drilling — can be repurposed.

In setting regulations for methane or produced water, we doubt the interests of industry and the people of New Mexico will align at every point. When disagreements occur, the regulators must be on the side of New Mexicans.

We understand that politicians tend to speak to the crowd before them. Lujan Grisham’s speech indicated clearly the tough nature of the governor’s current balancing act — she is attempting to act aggressively on climate change while spending the oil and gas windfall on education, economic diversification, infrastructure and social needs.

As she walks the tightrope, the state must not neglect sensible regulation of an industry, especially given the climate crisis the entire planet is facing and the very real damage oil and gas drilling can do to the environment.

The state’s formulation of methane regulations is one we will be watching — New Mexico has the opportunity to reduce 1 million tons of methane emissions annually, according to some estimates. That’s the nearterm climate impact of 22 coal-fired power plants a year, as well as some $275 million in lost energy resources and some $43 million in taxes and royalty revenues that aren’t being collected.

Done right, New Mexico could reduce emissions by 60 percent. That’s what we should be shooting for.

After all, reducing methane emissions would be just a portion of the state goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. We can’t slack off, in other words.

Because when all is said and done, after the oil and gas is depleted, the land, water and air of New Mexico will remain. Let’s keep them as pristine and pollution free as possible. That can happen, but only if the regulators work for the people rather than industry.