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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
N.M. Wants To Drill; Is Washington Listening?
By Marita Noon
Citizens
There's nothing like a close election to get candidates focused on what voters want, and New Mexico more than meets that requirement.
We've got a high-profile U.S. Senate race between Reps. Tom Udall and Steve Pearce, and polls show the Obama-McCain matchup is so close here that our five electoral votes could be key to deciding the presidential election. Nobody knows how either election will turn out, but there's no suspense about what New Mexico voters want on the pocketbook issue of energy policy.
The Journal's statewide poll on energy issues showed that New Mexicans favor expanded offshore oil and gas drilling by a 64 percent to 24 percent margin. Democrats also favor drilling 49 percent to 34 percent, according to the Journal poll conducted by Research & Polling Inc.
Since offshore drilling has tended to be one of the most hard-fought issues in Congress, these percentages are significant.
The Journal's poll highlights the same type of findings of our organization. Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy just completed a statewide poll and the results show that New Mexicans overwhelmingly favor a strong national energy policy that will drive down prices for gasoline, natural gas and heating oil by expanding the energy supply. They also overwhelmingly oppose new taxes on energy companies.
Specifically, our CARE poll results tell us that 92 percent of the New Mexicans who responded support strong American energy, 65 percent believe that gasoline and other energy prices would increase if the government hits energy companies with more taxes, and 68 percent favor increased access to America's domestic energy reserves, including offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.
New Mexicans' overwhelming endorsement of strong American energy probably won't ruffle any political feathers. The other two points, however, are another story.
The strong support of Americans for offshore drilling puts New Mexico at the center of an intense controversy on that issue. Similarly, our belief that higher taxes on energy companies will only raise energy costs for consumers puts us front and center in a debate going on in the U.S. Capitol.
The drilling issue seemed at least temporarily settled last month when a bipartisan majority in Congress voted to lift the 27-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas in the coastal waters of both oceans and parts of the Gulf of Mexico. But offshore drilling foes in Congress along with the next administration in Washington may try to have the ban reinstated. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., has stated publicly he wants the next Congress to renew the offshore drilling ban.
If the ban on offshore drilling does indeed happen, it would close off our access to the estimated 18 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lying underneath America's Outer Continental Shelf. And since offshore drilling would create good paying jobs and otherwise provide a shot in the arm for our slumping economy, we stand to lose a lot more than energy resources if access is denied.
New Mexico's support for domestic drilling is hardly a moot point given the richness of our state's natural resources. Nor is our overwhelming opposition to increased taxes on energy companies. Recently, a faction in the House of Representatives has been pushing an energy bill that would add $15 billion in new taxes on America's domestic energy producers.
Proponents of strong U.S. energy see this as a dangerous step in the wrong direction.
By adding to the operating costs of U.S. energy producers, more taxes make them less competitive in world markets — where energy prices are set and many foreign producers are subsidized by their governments. And inevitably those higher taxes on energy companies will be passed along as higher pries at the pump, where New Mexicans are now paying an average of $3.59 a gallon for regular gas, up from $2.78 just a year ago.
Judging from the poll results, New Mexico voters feel we won't lower energy prices and ease our reliance on imported oil through grab-bag measures like lowering our tire pressure. The consensus in the Land of Enchantment seems to be for a comprehensive national energy policy that maximizes the power of our own resources.
New Mexico has spoken. Only time will tell who's listening.
Marita Noon is executive director of the Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE), a nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the need to guarantee our access to the affordable energy that drives our nation forward. CARE's poll of almost 3,500 New Mexicans — all likely voters in the upcoming election — was conducted Sept. 16-17. The five-question survey was conducted by Dialing Services LLC of Roswell. Responses among survey participants were weighted, or adjusted, to ensure that responses accurately reflect New Mexico's population, geographic and voting demographics.
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