Wilson: Oil, Gas Still Priority For N.M.

WASHINGTON – During 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Heather Wilson voted for legislation to expand domestic oil drilling and boost production of clean energy sources.

Now, as the Republican nominee for one of New Mexico’s seats in the U.S. Senate, the former congresswoman said she still supports an “all of the above” energy strategy. But she also stressed that production of traditional fuels, such as oil and gas, should be a priority for New Mexico.

She also said proposed cap-and-trade regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions – a proposal that is dead in Congress for now – would hurt New Mexico oil and gas producers.

“Here in New Mexico, it (would cost) a lot of jobs and a lot of American-made energy,” Wilson said. “It is basically a huge tax on fossil fuel energy.”

Wilson lamented that it now takes about 120 days to obtain a permit to drill for oil and gas on federal land in New Mexico – double the time it took in 2006, she said. The drilling permit process should be sped up to help create jobs in New Mexico, she said.

Wilson supports construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the United States. The hotly disputed pipeline would carry tar sands petroleum from Canada to Texas and – according to its advocates – create thousands of jobs. Detractors contend that the job estimates are inflated and that the pipeline would pose significant environmental risks.

“The whole point is to give ourselves another source of energy that comes from a country that doesn’t hate us,” Wilson said, explaining her support of the pipeline. “It (would create) jobs, and we get a little more independence from the Middle East.”

Wilson in the past has supported incentives, such as loan guarantees and production tax credits, for wind, solar and other clean energy sources. However, she said, the Solyndra case, in which a California solar panel manufacturing company defaulted on a $550 million federal loan guarantee, raised troubling questions.

“My real criticism of what’s gone on the last few years with these programs is that the subsidies or loan guarantees seem to be going to those who are politically connected or scream the loudest rather than those who have the best technologies or businesses,” Wilson said. “It shouldn’t be about cronyism or access, and that seems to be what happened.”

Wilson said the federal government should orient its energy investments toward cutting-edge basic and applied science, not helping to underwrite clean energy companies.

“In general, I think the private market does better at allocating capital investment,” she said. “A higher priority (for government) is basic research, which the private sector will not do because there is no financial incentive to do so.”

She said an aggressive push by the Obama administration toward development of more wind and solar might be misguided, especially if it comes at the expense of developing more domestic oil, gas and coal.

“Wind and solar will be a certain percentage of our electricity mix, but it will never be able to handle the baseload – at least not in the foreseeable future,” Wilson said. “Where it works, that’s fine. It’s all part of the mix, and that’s why I say ‘all of the above’ energy strategy.”

Wilson said natural gas fracking, which injects water and other chemicals into rock to recover the gas, is working in New Mexico.

“It’s revolutionized the energy industry in the last 10 years,” Wilson said. “The largest producer of oil and natural gas in New Mexico is a company called Concho (Resources), and they have 900 wells in New Mexico. Not a single one would be economically viable without fracking. There are tens of thousands of jobs that depend on this new technology and a whole lot of lower-cost energy that we are getting.”
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal