IPANM is not afraid to take strong stances on many current issues threatening our industry. We have to! Seemingly minor changes to regulations or rules can have a major impact on the financial solvency of our small oil & gas producers. While we will never compromise on our duties to protect human health, fresh water and the environment in our daily activities, we will fight unnecessary government overreach when new regulatory proposals are not based on sound science and do little to protect the environment.
Below, we’ve identified serious issues facing our producers. Please click on the corresponding button to learn more about each issue and IPANM’s stance on the issue. (Note: Some of this content may be restricted for members only. To access this exclusive content, please join our association!)
IPANM (April 15, 2022) -- In response to the Department of Interior's Leasing Announcement, IPANM releases the following statement: "The Biden administration’s
EnergyNow.com (June 22, 2022) – What we’ve been told about fossil fuels is exactly backward. We are told that we should be afraid of continuing fossil fuel use because it will make the world unlivable. In fact, fossil fuel use has made the world a better and better place to live, including safer from climate, for the last two centuries—and can continue to do so going forward. What will make the world unlivable for more and more people, as we are seeing now, is the attempt to eliminate fossil fuels—which necessarily leads to energy crises and economic crises. The only way out of this crisis is for America—and the world—to embrace a Fossil Future.
Feds Delay the Already Delayed Miniscule Land Sale
SANTA FE, N.M. — Today, the BLM-New Mexico announced that the oil and gas lease sale scheduled for June 23, 2022, is now be scheduled for June 30, 2022. The date for this sale has shifted slightly to complete the analyses required under the National Environmental Policy Act and allow time for protest resolution. To view the amendment announcing the adjusted sale dates please visit: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2015538/510.
Feds again delay New Mexico Oil and gas land sale
Carlsbad Current Argus (June 15, 2022) – A sale of public land in southeast New Mexico’s Permian Basin to the oil and gas industry was delayed again by about a week by the federal Bureau of Land Management, amid criticism that the federal administration’s energy policy was harming American consumers.
Environmentalists were also critical of the administration of President Joe Biden for scheduling the sales, after the President during his term and along the campaign trail vowed to reduce pollution caused by extraction in the U.S.
When Biden first took office, the Department of the Interior which oversees the BLM placed an indefinite pause on federal lease sales of public land to energy companies for oil and gas operations as the agency reevaluated its fossil fuel programs.
After months of intensified environmental and climate change analysis, the New Mexico lease sale was scheduled for June 16.
But records show on June 6, the sale was delayed again to June 23.
Energy industry leaders and local leaders in the Permian Basin area chided the Biden administration for disrupting what they said was an essential economic driver of the region.
New Mexico is second in the nation, after Texas is oil production which makes up more than a third of the State’s budget.
In comparison, Texas’s oil and gas operations are mostly on private land an unimpacted by federal decision making, leaving many in New Mexico concerned their state was uniquely vulnerable to shifts in energy policy.
Larry Behrens, spokesman for Power the Future based in Santa Fe said the delays in sales and other policies of the Biden administration related to oil and gas were chiefly responsible for rising energy costs.
The national average gas price rose to more than $5 a gallon in early June, with AAA reporting it at about $5.02 a gallon on Tuesday, with New Mexico’s average at $4.8 a gallon.
The U.S. Forest Service admitted to accidentally starting the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire in April, which grew to more than 300,000 acres – the largest in New Mexico’s history.
Power the Future Executive Director Daniel Turner said the administration must support U.S. oil and gas to provide solace to consumers, rather than following the agenda of the environmental community.
“In his heart of hearts, Biden knows unleashing American energy will fix the pain our families are enduring, but he doesn’t care because his cult green ideology is his highest priority,” Turner said. “Sadly, this historic failure will not be the last one forced on Americans before this administration faces a reckoning in November.”
But environmental groups said the fires were further proof that the government should cease providing land to the oil and gas industry for its operations.
Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager with Friends of the Earth said fossil fuel extraction on public land was responsible for almost a quarter of U.S. climate pollution.
“President Biden’s massive public lands giveaway in the face of utter climate catastrophe is just the latest sign that his climate commitments are mere rhetoric,” she said “The more public lands sacrificed to Big Oil, the more economic damage, death, and destruction baked into our future.
Real Clear Politics (June 15, 2022) – The Green Agenda supporters like to think they’re saving the earth. But instead, they’re destroying American jobs, straining family budgets, and undermining our national security. For them, $5 gas is an opportunity to satisfy environmental interest groups and advance their radical political agenda, all while feeling morally superior. What is needed now is the reinforcement of the importance of being good stewards of our natural resources and championing policies that actually preserve the environment – without suffocating Americans.
IPANM, Western Energy Alliance, & Industry Trade Associations (June 2022) – IPANM has joined a consortium of industry trade groups in arguing that the SEC is purposefully assuming an activist stance on an issue way outside its jurisdiction, and consequently, undermining its own role regulate Securities Exchanges in favor of blatant environmental activism. IPANM filed it’s letter to the SEC in June, and states that the suggestion on page 21362 of the SEC rule that, “…an energy company might discuss how, due to actual or potential regulatory constraints, it intends to take advantage of climate-related opportunities by…reducing its medium and long range fossil fuel exploration and production…” SEC is encouraging oil and natural gas companies to voluntarily reduce production, revenue, and returns to investors in order to meet voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals. Clearly SEC has gone far afield from its mission of capital formation to assuming an air quality role. The rule could not come at a worse time, as it is abundantly clear America needs to increase production of oil and natural gas to
reduce prices for Americans and our allies in Europe and across the globe.
PREVIOUS UPDATE
(May 3, 2022) – This week, the Western Energy Alliance submitted a joint trades letter signed by a coalition of 36 trade and industry associations, including IPANM, asking for a full 180-day comment period for the SEC’s climate change disclosure rule. SEC has given the public just 39 days to weigh in, with a deadline of May 20th.
American Energy Alliance (May 22, 2022) – Joe Biden and his administration have a plan American energy: make it harder to produce and more expensive to purchase. Since the Biden took office, his administration has taken over 100 actions deliberately designed to make it harder to produce energy here in America.
32 of these anti-energy proclamations were enacted after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Biden regularly touts as an excuse for rising gas prices.
This is exactly what the Green New Deal agenda is, making the sources of energy needed every day for families around the country too expensive to afford.
Fox Business (May 11, 2022) – Interior Department canceled a 1-million-plus acre oil lease in Alaska as Americans face painfully high prices at the pump. The Biden administration canceled one of the most high-profile oil and gas lease sales pending before the Department of the Interior Wednesday, as Americans face record-high prices at the pump, according to AAA.
Energy In Depth (April 22, 2022) – White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy may have spilled the beans on the Biden administration’s plans for energy production on federal lands in her recent interview with MSNBC – and it’s the complete opposite of President Biden’s assurances he is using use every tool in the toolbox to tackle the challenge of rising energy costs for Americans.
IPANM (April 15, 2022) — In response to the Department of Interior’s Leasing Announcement, IPANM releases the following statement:
“The Biden administration’s announcement to lease just 20% of the available acreage nominated by the oil and gas industry will do little to change the President’s war on domestic production punishing American consumers.
If the Biden administration was serious about decreasing prices at the pump, fighting inflation, and returning America to energy independence, the President would have made a more meaningful announcement himself instead of pushing out a weak policy reversal by news release late on a Friday afternoon leading into a holiday weekend.”
PANM (April 15, 2022) — In response to final deliberations and passage of a New Mexico Ozone Precursor Methane Rule, IPANM releases the following statement:
“The Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico believes the goal of the New Mexico ozone precursor methane rule should have been to reduce emissions while preserving well economics and minimizing potential job losses. An initial draft of the rule allowed for a reasonable regulatory framework for low-volume production, however, the state removed that provision in the 11th hour after pressure from out-of-state environmental groups who subverted a good-faith collaborative stakeholder effort. IPANM is disappointed by provisions in the final rule that disproportionately target low volume producers, which will lead to premature plugging of still-productive wells that are already environmentally safe and contribute significantly to state revenues.
IPANM’s concern throughout this process is that the state would appease out-of-state environmental groups pushing provisions based on anti-oil & gas ideology instead of real emissions data and facts. Unfortunately, the state’s own news release seems to confirm our suspicion by offering the celebratory quotes of environmental groups and a Biden administration that has blatantly declared war on domestic production while encouraging foreign adversaries to produce, pollute, and export fuels to the United States without any accountability. The combination of these new federal and state oil & gas restrictions will continue to punish New Mexicans at the gas pump, undermine our domestic security, increase our dependency on foreign adversaries at a time when we should be increasing domestic production.”
