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The mayor of Artesia says he didn’t turn down an invitation to meet with President Barack Obama on Wednesday in southeastern New Mexico’s oil patch.
Mayor Phillip Burch says he just didn’t see any point in attending a White House-arranged event in front of a pump jack near Maljamar.
“I was invited to the location to hear the president’s remarks,” the calm, courteous-sounding mayor told me over the phone on Thursday. “If the invitation had been to discuss policies on oil and gas, I would have been there in a heartbeat.”
The president spent a few minutes in Maljamar to boast of increases in domestic oil and gas production during his administration. And he soft-pedaled, or didn’t mention at all, administration leanings on things people in the industry think interfere with production – like certain lizards and other threatened or endangered species, restrictions on drilling on certain federal lands and other environmental regulations.
Obama’s trip was part of a two-day national tour to promote his national energy policies, but also was apparently intended to dispel the notion that climbing gasoline prices are tied to domestic oil production and to build support for a coming vote in Congress to cut tax incentives for big oil companies.
“I did not decline the offer,” Burch said. “I simply did not attend.”
Burch noted that Artesia is in the heart of southeastern New Mexico’s oil and gas country and that his town’s economy is closely tied to the industry.
“Had this visit really been to get the input of the people involved, I would have been happy to attend,” he said.
Burch said an advance statement from the White House about the president’s theme in Maljamar “told me what his remarks were going to be.” And Burch acknowledged that the president’s figures about domestic oil and gas production increases are factual.
But he added: “It’s pretty clear to the people in the oil and gas business that these accomplishments have been achieved without regard to administration positions.”
Artesia Mayor: Obama Wasn’t Seeking Feedback
POLITICS NOTEBOOK
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal
