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Submitted by Bob Carroll, Albuquerque voter and Oil & Gas retiree
This letter is provided as opinion/commentary from the author.
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Five out-of-state Republican Congressmen recently issued a warning to New Mexico voters that the state was is big trouble if it didn’t return Yvette Harrell to Congress because the Biden administration was on a mission to destroy the oil and gas industry in New Mexico. The facts demonstrate that this is a blatant falsehood being spread by these MAGA Republicans with Congresswoman Harrell’s approval.
The truth is that oil and gas production in New Mexico has skyrocketed during the current administration to the point where New Mexico is now the second largest oil producing state in the country. That’s why we have a budget surplus. On top of that New Mexico is dramatically increasing production of renewable energy such as wind and solar. MAGA Republicans see the energy world as a battle of “renewables vs. fossil fuels.” In New Mexico we have increased the production levels of both energy sources. We also wisely adopted a reasonable state methane-emissions rule that will significantly reduce harmful leaks from oil and gas operations.
Congresswoman Harrell got herself elected in southeast New Mexico in part by spreading fears of lost jobs among oil and gas workers and attributing those job losses to tree-hugging lefties in Northern New Mexico. That act may not work with the thousands of Albuquerque voters she picked up in the latest redistricting.
In my decades of working in both the oil and gas industry and the renewable energy industry, it is clear to me that New Mexico will need both sources of energy to climb out of our rankings at or near the bottom of most quality-of-life indexes. Oil and gas alone won’t get it, and neither will the leadership of Yvette Harrell and her band of MAGA Republicans.