Editor,
The recent letter outlining UNM’s lobbying to let oil and gas producers strip local government of regulatory authority is important and welcome. The argument that UNM is funded by oil and gas and should shut up is a favorite of conservative legislators and climate deniers, and I am sorry to see it repeated by people commenting on the letter.
Even setting aside the issue of climate change, pre-emption and deregulation are threats to local ability to keep industrial machinery, noise, air and water pollution, etc. at reasonable distances from human habitation, schools, hospitals, etc. The State of NM fails to protect surface owner safety, health, and property rights.
As a result, more than 25 local NM governments (including those where oil and gas are produced) have passed regulations on surface impacts. And if you want to protect UNM’s funding, subsidizing production (fiscally or by loosening regulation) when prices are low actively cheats the State coffers, because severance taxes and royalties are a percentage of the going price.
To spell it out, for the same volume of non-renewable resource removed, revenue when the price is $33 is one-third what it would be -- for the same oil -- at $100/barrel. With the petroleum market so depressed and volatile, major insurers, bond issuers, and investors are divesting. Whether UNM divests for ethical reasons isn’t the point: both UNM and the State are gambling on revenue from an increasingly risky source.
Please don’t let climate-doubting blinder you to the many other threats posed by drilling and fracking, and by the policies that favor them over all other human activity and rights.
Sincerely,
Kim Sorvig
UNM faculty
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