You are currently in the IPANM Public Newsroom. MEMBERS: Please login below to access exclusive MEMBERS ONLY information, including
Regulatory updates The IPANM Event Calendar Information and Issues IPANM Policy Positions The IPANM Member Directory Legislative Bill Tracking with BillTrack 50 Access to your IPANM Memberzone information page
IPANM(August 5, 2022) – At 5 p.m. MT today, the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico (IPANM) filed a Notice of Appeal to legally challenge the Environmental Improvement Board’s adopted Ozone Precursor Rule.
The following statement has been released by Jim Winchester, Executive Director of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, regarding IPANM’s filing an appeal to the Ozone Precursor Rule.
“At a time when the public supports responsible domestic production to reduce gasoline prices and a decrease in our dependency on foreign sources of energy that are unquestionably worse for the environment, IPANM strongly feels this is the wrong rule at the wrong time. While IPANM does support a fair and balanced Ozone Precursor regulation, we have no choice but to appeal this version of the rule that will force operators to plug still-productive wells and will inflict economic hardship on New Mexicans with little to no gain for the environment.”
Today’s filing with the New Mexico State Court of Appeals against the Environmental Improvement Board will be followed by technical arguments to be filed by IPANM within 30 days that will identify the specific provisions to be challenged. With the matter now in the court, IPANM will not comment on the specifics of the pending objections other than to point to our concerns raised throughout the 3-year process that were not included in the New Mexico Environment Department’s final draft rule submitted to the EIB.
–Jim Winchester
Executive Director, Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico
This content is for members only.
Please login here! If you have any questions about your membership, please email megan@ipanm.org.
Mike Rowe Facebook Post (June 26, 2022) – IPANM appreciates the following Q & A posted by “Dirty Jobs” Host Mike Rowe.
Hobbs Sun (June 26, 2022) by IPANM Executive Director Jim Winchester –
Thanks to the thousands of hardworking men and women working in the oil & gas industry in the New Mexico Permian Basin, our great state is well positioned to continue to be an energy leader in America. We’re now #2 in oil production and #8 in natural gas production of all fifty states. This directly translates into revenues that are used to improve all walks of life in New Mexico. So, to those industry workers and to the many others who support our industry in Hobbs and SE New Mexico, we thank you for your support!
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.
