Although we had hoped the preemption bill would go through the House floor this past weekend, there were some intervening issues which delayed the debate until later this week. When it is on the House floor I would encourage you to listen in via webcasting which you can access on www.nmlegis.gov.

Tomorrow afternoon SB421 will be heard in the Senate Conservation Committee. This bill will amend the zoning authority of both counties and municipalities to prohibit them from having any ordinances concerning oil and gas, mining or agricultural issues. This bill is different from the IPANM bill HB 366, which clarifies that the NMOCD is the only authority to regulate conservation, extraction, processing and storage of oil and gas. Our bill still allows for zoning authority in areas other than those listed. If you have the time I would encourage you to listen in via webcast as well.

Preemption is an issue that is of primary concern to IPANM and we will support Senator Ingle’s bill in the Conservation Committee tomorrow.

2-26-2015 Legislative Update
Week 2 2015 Legislative Update
Week 1 2015 Legislative Update

Yesterday at the New Mexico Legislature, House Leader Nate Gentry introduced a bill (HB 366) on IPANM’s behalf. HB 366 seeks to clarify the jurisdiction of the NMOCD as the primarily regulatory authority over the extraction, production, drilling, completion operations, transportation and processing of oil and natural gas in New Mexico. This bill is vitally important in the discussion with counties and their authority to regulate our industry. The language and intent of the IPANM bill have been carefully crafted to follow the recent decision in the SWEPI v. Mora case wherein Federal District Judge Browning held there is conflict preemption between the laws establishing NMOCD’s authority and Mora County’s desire to ban all oil and gas operations. However, he also stated that because the NMOCD does not regulate all issues that might arise regarding an oil and gas operation, such as noise, dust or neighbor nuisance complaints, that the state cannot have express jurisdiction over all oil and gas operations. Thus, it is the goal of HB 366 to express the intent of the legislature that the state is the sole regulatory body over a specific list of oil and gas activities including siting, drilling, completion, production, processing and transportation thereby preempting counties, municipalities or other political subdivisions from regulating in those specific areas. HB 366 is a necessary and substantial clarification from the existing law which gives the NMOCD the authority over the conservation of oil and gas and the prevention of waste. The bill was referred to House Energy and House Judiciary. We hope to see the bill in committee within the next week or so.
HB 366

Yesterday afternoon, after a long and difficult hearing, HB 366 passed the House Judiciary Committee on a 7-5 party line vote. Industry owes a debt of gratitude to Majority Leader Nate Gentry for sponsoring this difficult but very important bill for IPANM and for our industry. Representative Gentry has done a significant amount of research and he knows the preemption issues. Even with vocal opposition from the minority members and citizens in the audience, Rep Gentry has been an unbelievably strong advocate for industry. Although we will most likely get HB 366 through the House, the fight will continue to get the bill through the Senate and Rep. Gentry is willing to continue working on our behalf.

If you have the time, please send Representative Gentry a note to say thank you and to indicate your support for HB 366. His email is natefornm@gmail.com and his address is 3716 Andrew Drive NE Albuquerque NM 87110; his Office phone at the Capitol is 505-986-4776.

I would also like to thank all the industry folks who were present and spoke in support of the bill. We had strong representation from industry, the State Land Office, UNM, landowners and the business community. Thank you for taking the time to come to the hearing to support HB 366.

In addition, Chairman Cook, Representatives Pacheco, Brown, McMillan, Dines and Adkins voted with Representative Gentry in support of the bill today. Chairman Strickler, Representatives David Gallegos, Maestas-Barnes, Scott and Townsend must also receive thanks for voting in favor of HB 366 in House Energy late last week. Representatives Ezzell, Crowder, Rehm, Montoya and Wooley have also co-sponsored the bill thereby indicating their support for the bill.

The next step in the process is to get HB 366 across the House floor which I expect will result in a full three hour debate. It is my hope that we will have the opportunity for a hearing on the House Floor this weekend. (Please see attached to this email a list of House members.) As an industry, we need to contact as many House members and Senators as possible to indicate our support for the bill. We also need to have our mineral owners contact those house members to support the bill on the grounds that their property interests are being impacted by over-reaching counties who should not be able to regulate oil and gas issues. I will also contact the numerous beneficiaries of the Land Grant Permanent Fund to ask them to contact House members and Senators.

Today was an exciting day at the NM Legislature for IPANM members and our industry. It is truly a pleasure to work in this new proactive environment and to work cooperatively with other industry representatives and the business community. But we cannot do it without the support of our legislators here in Santa Fe. Please take the time to contact them.