Big, transformative bills involving public safety and oil and gas regulation were up for debate during New Mexico’s legislative session at the start of the year. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham promoted both initiatives, and both died in the Democratic-led Legislature.
Lujan Grisham then called a controversial special legislative session to get more public safety laws passed in the face of rising violent crime and a booming homelessness problem. Oil and gas industry reform was not, however, on the agenda, despite the fact that, in spite of tougher rules, the state continues to uncover clean air violations by the oil and gas industry—violations that lead to health problems today and more climate problems for the future.
Before the July Fourth weekend, the New Mexico Environment Department—one of two agencies that monitor oilfield operations in the state—announced the results of a 6-month inspection sweep conducted with the US Environmental Protection Agency, looking at oil and gas facilities in New Mexico’s portion of the Permian Basin, the highest producing oil field in the nation. Of 124 facilities investigated, 75 were emitting volatile organic compounds, which contribute to the formation of ozone, possibly violating state rules and the federal Clean Air Act. Further investigation is required before civil or criminal proceedings can be launched, said Drew Goretzka, spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department.
The results of the inspections are part of a systemic problem. According to James Kenney, the Environment Department secretary, the two lawyers in his office already have 79 oil and gas air quality investigations on their plates, comprising 70% of their caseload. Furthermore, he said 15% of New Mexico’s oil production is already happening under federal consent decrees after companies were found to be violating clean air laws. “I would expect that … percentage to rise based on the most recent round of inspections,” Kenney said.
The recent inspections weren’t random. “We started with satellite data that was looking at emissions,” he said, then used compliance histories and citizen complaints to narrow the field and choose where to inspect.
“Time and time again, the compliance rate sort of tends to hover—no matter when we look or where we look—around a 50%–60% number,” Kenney said. Looked at from the other direction: Wherever the Environment Department looks, 40%–50% of oil and gas production sites fail to meet state and federal air quality standards.
“What stuck out to me [in the announcement] is that 60% of inspected sites have a violation,” said Kayley Shoup, an organizer with Citizens Caring for the Future, an industry and environmental watchdog in New Mexico’s portion of the Permian Basin. “And I thought to myself, you know, what about everything else that goes uninspected 90% of the time.”
Meanwhile, the number of wells needing inspections keeps growing. “You just cannot outrun the growth of this industry,” she said. “If you were to come down here, you’d think, ‘Oh, it’s 1985.’ … Oil and gas is still just king, and it’s continuing to grow.”
Since Lujan Grisham took office in 2019, oil production has more than doubled in New Mexico and state agencies have implemented some of the strictest rules in the nation. The Methane Rule and the Ozone Precursor Rule were written to keep oil and gas emissions out of the state’s air to combat climate warming and air pollution.
But rules are not laws and could be upended by a future state administration. Coupled with recent decisions by the US Supreme Court hamstringing the EPA’s ability to create and enforce its own rules, New Mexico could well face a future with reduced protections from both state and federal agencies.
“It’s important we get the ozone rule codified in statute,” Kenney said. “It needs to be embedded into state law.” As for possibly losing backing from the EPA, he took a hopeful stand. “I think the years that we’ve invested with EPA, and the years that my legal team has invested with [the Department of Justice], has given us an enhanced skill set to be able to navigate some of these cases on our own.”
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