Martinez pushes for quicker oil, gas permits
Backlog of projects waiting for OK to drill costing state money, gov. tells Congress
Gov. Susana Martinez urged members of Congress on Wednesday to ease the government’s process for granting permits to drill for oil and gas on federal land.
The Republican governor told members of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources that a backlog of applications to drill means the state is missing out on its share of revenue those new wells could produce.
Martinez backed four draft bills, including two measures brought forward by U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-Hobbs, that could speed up the process for setting up new wells by scrapping certain environmental reviews in some circumstances.
Environmentalists have decried the proposals, arguing the measures would undermine protections for the environment and public health.
The federal government owns swathes of land across New Mexico and leases much of it for oil and gas production.
The state gets a cut of the money the federal government collects on oil and gas pumped out of federal lands in New Mexico.
The oil industry and some state officials have bemoaned what they argue is too lengthy a wait for energy companies to get permission for drilling on federal property.
The federal government charges less in royalties than New Mexico’s government does to produce oil and gas on state land, however. And some Democrats have argued that the state is missing out on money because the federal government has not raised its rates.
“Each backlogged permit represents New Mexicans losing out on good-paying jobs and rural communities losing out on economic growth,” Martinez told the committee in prepared remarks.
Ken McQueen, secretary of the state’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, was more blunt in testimony to the panel: “Waiting a year for a permit is an economic development poison pill,” he said.
The four draft bills they were supporting on Wednesday would, among other things, eliminate some environmental reviews and public comment processes in some circumstances. One draft measure would also allow the federal government to charge for the cost of processing formal objections to oil and gas development.
Conservation groups and others have blasted the proposals.
In a statement, Glenn Schiffbauer, of the Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce, argued Pearce, Martinez and McQueen were “actively trying to make oil and gas extraction more dangerous, and making it more difficult for the public to be involved in what happens in their communities, and in our public lands.”