Guest “I feel shocked” by Pepper Brooks David Middleton
Jan 24, 2021
New Mexico Officials Taken Aback By Biden Assault On Oil And Gas
David Blackmon
Senior Contributor
EnergyOfficials in the state of New Mexico professed to be taken aback last week by President Joe Biden’s day-one decision to impose a 60-day moratorium on all oil and gas-related leasing and permitting actions on federal lands. It is a decision that will have major ramifications on the state budgets of New Mexico and other Western states, especially if it is extended beyond its initial term and backed up by Biden’s promised ban on hydraulic fracturing on federal lands.
A little more than 2 years ago, in September, 2018, I wrote about the half-billion dollar windfall the State of New Mexico had just received during the course of a single sale of oil and gas leases on federal lands in the state. Those federal leases lie in the segment of the Permian Basin that spills over from Texas into the southeastern portion of New Mexico, part of the Delaware Basin play area that has become the hottest oil play in North America since 2016.
Like other oil and gas-producing western states, vast swaths of lands in New Mexico are owned by the federal government…
[…]
Some New Mexico officials are now trying to defend themselves by saying they didn’t anticipate the new President would issue such a ban, but such protests ring rather hollow given that they most assuredly did understand that Biden plans to move ahead with his fracking ban, which would for all intents and purposes have the same effect.
[…]
[T]he reality is that [New Mexico’s Democratic Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham] and her administration can strive to “diversify” the state’s energy portfolio all they want, but the state will still lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year should the Biden administration succeed in shutting down her state’s oil and gas business.
To be clear: Neither the state nor the federal government collects any royalties on solar installations or wind farms. There is no severance tax to be collected from those alternative forms of energy with which to fund the state’s schools or hospitals, or to sustain the free in-state college tuition program Lujan herself established in 2019 thanks to New Mexico’s new Permian/Delaware Basin windfall.
[…]
These are just some of the actual potential costs of the Biden assault on the New Mexico oil industry. They are the things that happen in the real world, as opposed to the fantasies pushed by many politicians.
[…]
Elections have consequences. For New Mexico, the consequences of the 2020 election are only now starting to be understood.
Forbes
“Elections have consequences”…
New Mexico’s hockey stick is very real.
New Mexico’s oil and gas production comes from the Permian and San Juan Basins (mostly Federal leases).
Unlike neighboring Texas, most of New Mexico’s oil & gas production and resources are on Federal leases.
Apparently unbeknownst to most New Mexico votes, oil & gas are vital parts of their economy.
How does the state benefit from oil and gas production?
Oil and gas development is a key part of New Mexico’s economy. In fiscal year (FY) 2013, the oil and gas industry provided 31.5% of New Mexico’s General Fund, which in turn funds schools, hospitals, and other government services. This is a conservative estimate, as it doesn’t include induced or secondary revenue generation. Early data suggests oil and gas’s contribution to the General Fund in FY 2014 may be as high as 38%. Oil and gas is directly responsible for 86% of the Severance Tax Permanent Fund and 96.6% of the Land Grant Permanent Fund. In FY 2014 the New Mexico State Land Office reported a record $726 million in revenue from oil and gas royalties alone for the state’s public schools, universities, and hospitals.
In addition, the oil and gas industry is an important employer in New Mexico. It is estimated that in 2012 9% of all employment in New Mexico, or 68,800 jobs, were directly or indirectly related to the oil and gas industry. In oil-producing counties such as Eddy County, the July 2014 unemployment rate was 4.0%, compared to the state average of 6.9%. Lea and Eddy Counties also had the second and third highest wages by county in 2013, with an average annual salary of $50,200, compared to the state average of $40,600.
While oil and gas production revenue is primarily generated in the southeastern and northwestern regions of the state, the revenue from oil and gas production benefits all reaches of New Mexico through General Fund disbursements, capital funding projects, gross receipts taxes, and ad valorem taxes that go to counties.
New Mexico Oil Conservation Division
How will the state of New Mexico deal with the Biden assault on their economy? In typical Democrat fashion:
Governor Lujan Grisham Would Seek Fracking Ban Waiver If Warren or Sanders Elected
IPANM, Reuters & OilPrice.com (Nov. 1, 2019) – While IPANM would have serious concerns if a newly-elected President would seek a nationwide fracking ban, we are encouraged that New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham recognizes the importance of fracking to sustain the state economy. The linked article below contains the following quotes from Gov. Lujan Grisham.
“Without the energy effort in this state, no one gets to make education the top priority,” said New Mexico Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in Santa Fe on October 8. If Trump loses next year’s election, she said in a later interview, she would request the Democratic president provide her state a waiver exempting it from any drilling ban “to allow us to continue to produce in New Mexico.”
Meanwhile, OilPrice.com reports that due to threats of a federal fracking ban with a new president, oil companies are responding by accelerating fracking in SouthEast New Mexico.
Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico
Did she really think Biden would be any better than Fauxcahontas or Comrade Bernie?
It never ceases to amaze me how often people are surprised when liberals do what they have been promising to do.
I have no doubt that the usual suspects will use the coming drop in oil and gas production as proof that peak oil is just around the corner.
The fightback begins
“The Tech-Giant-Dem Shock and Awe campaign caught mainstream America off guard and unprepared for the new regime of censorship and Psy-ops. Parler is still fighting for survival, and barely exists. But the fight-back is taking form. Two Democrats have now said they will not allow the Filibuster rules to change. Today, only 5 Republicans supported the Democrat impeachment and a Federal Judge has issued a restraining order against the Biden administrations demands that violent criminals bound for deportation be released into the community instead.”
violent criminals bound for deportation be released into the community instead.
That happens all the time in the UK. It’s not even news.
If you vote for scum, you get scum
So eat a bunch, New Mexicans
The fox is now in the henhouse.
I wish I had said that… 🙂
And the color regime-change chickens have come home to roost. Strange, the fox seems vegetarian….
US Democrats are not ‘leftists’. They are a conservative minded right of centre Centrist party.
Synarchist is the word, from the French, as OSS found out after WWII.
They are very far left on the IQ scale, though. Barely right of the origin.
From each according to ability and to each according to need. – Marxism
What do you call the government confiscating my hard earned money in order to give it to others? It’s not charity. Charity begins at home. Charity is personal and creates a bond between giver and recipient, a bond that can be used to teach someone how to fish instead of just getting a fish given to them every day. Government stealing my money in order to give it to others creates no bond at all – other than between government and recipient, and that bond is a bond of dependency, not charity. Government can’t teach a dependent how to fish, they can only give out a fish every day.
It is the LEFT in this country that advocates for such policies, not a Centrist party. A true Centrist party would provide a means for private charity to grow, and not try to curtail it with every thing they implement as the Left in this country does.
As in Germany, the CDU (Home of Merkel) is from origin not leftist, but act as leftist. So do the Democrats in the USA.
Not parties history is relevant but their action.
Compared to griff’s slimy marxist little mind… anyone is to the far right.
Democrats are marxist / socialist REGRESSIVES
fred250,
Griffey-poo apparently believes what politicians tell it and never looks at what they do! Perhaps you know someone that has a spare bridge they could sell it; I’d sell mine but I’m afraid I might need it soon for keeping out the riff raff!
and Karl Marx was a republican……. right griff !!
Griff, calling your statement “half-witted” would be giving it twice the credit it deserves.
In griff’s mind, the political spectrum goes something like this
Communist – right – far right
“Apparently unbeknownst to most New Mexico votes [sic], oil & gas are vital parts of their economy.”
Maybe they know it, but are just suicidal, because Orange Man Bad.
In fairness to New Mexico voters, it was reasonable to assume that Biden would not govern according to what he said he would do during the campaign. Biden has never stuck with any position from abortion to race relations to war in his entire career. People just reasonably assumed that he was lying and would not do anything as stupid as what he promised he would do.
Biden is the “hologram” as was already noted in the 1980’s. Assuming this hologram would not do as told is dumb.
However, what they should have realized is that Biden is making none of these decisions. Zero. He signs what they put in front of him, that’s it. I would be very surprised if he lasts 6 months before his dementia becomes so obvious even his bootlicking media can’t hide it.
Mike not six months but six weeks according to this!
https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-sees-shadow-predicting-six-weeks-of-being-president
2 years and 1 day. In their fever dream minds that would allow kameltoe to run for two terms and be president for 10 years.
All they would have to do is stop having press conferences. Most in the media wouldn’t complain. Biden could die, and the rest of the country wouldn’t know for weeks.
I simply cannot wait until Biden moves the US embassy back to Tel Aviv!
I discussed this with my wife last night. Unbelievably, those of the Jewish persuasion vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, the party that hates them.
That may have been true of the old Biden from 20 years ago.
It was quite obvious during the campaign that the new Biden was little more than an empty minded puppet who had to be protected from any exposure to the press.
Now starting to be understood? Declare the entire state mentally incompetent – and take them off their weed. On the plus side, some day they will vote blue and have their votes cast red because of the popular vote and their decision to throw their votes away.
It’s now time for a credit downgrade for NM in just the opening salvo of reality assault.
No doubt the Democrats in congress will be putting together bills to bail out blue states.
Lujan will attempt to mooch off federal funds for years to patch the budget and also spend money on tourism advertising to attract tourists……. with their fossil fuel vehicles.
Avoid NM. Their chronically bad roads in NM will now be turning to dirt ruts.
Do the tribes sell memberships? There may be a lot of demand soon.
Double the price of Hatch chilies, pottery, and trinkets to see how that works out.
When those, who proudly voted Biden, feel the sting of the consequences, they may console themselves with the knowledge that “the more it hurts, the more it shows you really care.”
Anyone who didn’t anticipate this is either willfully blind or delusional.
You can’t completely dismiss the possibility of them being willfully blind AND delusional.
NY and Boston know best what to do with NM. The locals are just in the way some times.
“To be clear: Neither the state nor the federal government collects any royalties on solar installations or wind farms….”
And that’s only half the issue. When you include the subsidies and carbon taxes that such out the remaining wealth of the community, then you end up with a road to extreme poverty and no way back.
Not to mention a populace spending most of its time in the dark. Better hope for warm winters!
The article mentioned this. I only quoted a few passages.
Hahaha. They didn’t “anticipate” this. If that’s true, they should resign over incompetence. I anticipated this and I’m just a normal person. I’m not “official” at anything except using my brain.
Stop killing jobs. You don’t destroy the livelihood of families and then say you will create some “shovel-ready” job at some point in the future. That is not the function of the federal government. Read the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
You are destructive to our unalienable Rights when you destroy someones Right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The Government is instituted to SECURE these Rights not trample them.