Last year, New Mexico senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich joined Republicans John McCain (Arizona), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), Susan Collins (Maine) and 46 other senators to vote down a resolution that would have rolled back the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Methane and Waste Prevention rule, a commonsense standard to reduce natural gas waste on public and tribal lands.
Despite the fact that oil and gas operators on New Mexico’s public and tribal lands waste more than $100 million worth of natural gas every year — the worst of any state — Congressman Steve Pearce has publicly denounced the BLM methane rule and supported multiple efforts to overturn it.
If Congressman Pearce had his way and efforts to overturn the BLM methane rule succeed, there will be no checks on the leaking, venting, and flaring of publicly owned natural gas, which not only wastes energy and needlessly pollutes our air, but denies New Mexico taxpayers millions of dollars in royalty revenue every year.
Despite that legislative defeat and an outpouring of support for the BLM methane rule during a public comment period held earlier this spring, the Trump Administration and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are continuing an assault on these commonsense safeguards by advancing a dangerous plan to gut the BLM methane rule in favor of more waste and millions of dollars in lost revenue. What’s worse, they have Congressman Pearce’s wholehearted support in ignoring the will of the American people and advancing this special interest-driven agenda.
According to the BLM’s own analysis, Zinke’s proposal would actually reduce natural gas supply from federal lands and would cost Americans more than $1 billion in wasted natural gas and pollution. If Zinke and Pearce succeed at rolling back the BLM waste rule, companies would pay no royalties on the gas they waste which means taxpayers in New Mexico would lose out on millions of dollars in revenue every year– including funding for public schools and much needed infrastructure repairs in local communities across the state.
New Mexicans deserve better. Without the BLM methane rule, oil and gas operators will continue to add to natural gas waste that robs New Mexico taxpayers of an estimated $27 million in revenue every year.
It is unfortunate that Congressman Pearce would rather allow our shared natural gas resources to literally go up in flames than support prudent rules to limit methane waste and protect taxpayers in his district, the state, and across the country.
Rolling back the BLM rule is the opposite of conservative, it’s reckless. Doing so will only benefit the most irresponsible oil and gas producers. Forward thinking oil and gas companies like XTO Energy, the domestic drilling arm of ExxonMobil and a huge producer in New Mexico’s Permian Basin, have endorsed these methane rules because they know cutting waste makes good business sense. But we need sensible, across the board requirements to hold all producers to a high standard. New Mexicans know, wasting huge amounts of natural gas is something we can ill afford.
Any real conservative should know the value of our taxpayer owned natural resources and be a good steward of America’s energy supply. We call on Congressman Pearce to do the sensible, conservative thing and work to support federal methane waste safeguards.
David Jenkins is the president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, a national nonprofit organization.
Leave A Comment