We will all be Big Oil scapegoats

The words were direct — and encouraging. In his State of the Union address, President Obama said that his administration is committed to “cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and natural gas permits.”

You might have missed the call in his message for a big tax increase on oil and natural gas companies. That’s exactly what he meant when he referred to his desire for a “market-based solution to climate change” and to “use some of our oil and natural gas revenues” to fund “green-energy” programs.

Can we start by agreeing that there’s not one truly clean energy source?

The Associated Press just reported millions of pounds of polluted sludge and contaminated water are the byproduct of solar-panel manufacturing each year in this country.

Wind-turbine generators are manufactured with rare-earth metals, the mining and processing of which creates millions of tons of toxic waste, not to mention the environmental impact of roads and pads developed for wind turbines’ ultimate placement.

Back to those tax increases on New Mexico job-creators of the oil and natural gas industries.

The problem is that socking it to Big Oil doesn’t hurt fat cats on Wall Street so much as it does the struggling families of middle-class America.

Many of the oil and natural gas companies operating in places like Hobbs are local, independently owned small businesses — and many among them are minority-owned.

The importance of oil and natural gas as drivers in an otherwise sluggish economy simply can’t be overstated. The industry supports 9.2 million American jobs and accounts for 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivering $86 million in revenue each day to the government.

According to Energy Advances New Mexico, nearly 15,000 New Mexicans are employed in oil and natural gas jobs, with an average salary nearly double the state average.

That figure is just direct employment. It doesn’t include the many New Mexico companies that do business here with the oil and natural gas — from restaurants to furniture stores — relying on it for their own commercial vitality.

As oil production in the state continues its rebound — with 2012 reaching levels not seen since 1979 — these direct and indirect employment numbers are bound to continue improving, too.

Increased oil production is one key source of the $283 million in revenue that the state Legislature now has to meet budget needs.

If the politicians have their way and use the tax code to punish oil and natural gas, these jobs and revenues will dry up.

When politicians talk about tax breaks for Big Oil and the supposed need to “level the playing field,” they’re actually talking about putting oil and natural gas at a disadvantage. Oil and natural gas companies are claiming exactly the same deductions other industries take — for expenses and for investment in research.

The oil and natural gas industries have long been a favorite target for politicians. But when they aim at Big Oil, they hit you and your neighbors.

New Mexico ranks fifth in the nation in proven oil reserves and oil production, and sixth for natural gas reserves and production. New Mexico’s residents and our state economy benefit from a healthy energy industry — thanks in large part to the right assets and the right attitudes of Lea County, now known as and proving to be “the EnergyPlex” for the “all of the above” approach we need for energy independence.

We are the ones who will pay the price from scapegoating Big Oil and imposing taxes in reprisal.