Amber Wallin

LETTER: For good of New Mexico schools, Congress must act on DOI’s new recommendations

  Even when we’re grateful for something – for example, the jobs and state revenue we get from oil and gas production – that doesn’t mean we should cut ourselves short and ignore our own needs. We deserve to get the best deal we can. But when it comes to oil and natural gas, we’ve settled for a bad deal for a very long time. While families in New Mexico face rising gasoline prices at the pump, oil and natural gas companies are getting the deal of a century. Not only are they cashing in on higher prices, but they pay pennies on the dollar to lease our public lands for development and evade having to pay New Mexicans what we’re rightfully owed in royalties.