OPINION: Fossil fuel industry needs to take responsibility for cleanup

The Albuquerque Journal recently ran an opinion piece “New Mexico Energy Dominance Creates Opportunity” by fossil fuel industry group America First Policy Institute (Oct. 5 Sunday Journal).

References to dominance and plans to “unleash New Mexico’s full potential,” are a stark reminder of the adverse impacts that the fossil fuel industry has in our communities, including pollution and abrogating responsibility to remediate when the projects are over.

I thought manifest destiny was a concept of the past. Where I live in the Four Corners region, we see what “dominance” really looks like: more than 40,000 existing oil and gas wells, natural gas processing facilities, the remnants of a coal economy that collapsed and uranium mines scattered throughout the landscape. Impacts from previous endeavors emulating dominance have left behind injustices, pollution, public health problems, inequities and unassigned liabilities — an accepted culture of abandonment.

It’s time for the fossil fuel industry to take responsibility — to plug leaking oil and gas wells, clean up old mine sites, and restore/remediate the land they profited from. Further dominance and unleashing of so-called powers would lead to more broken promises, decay and pollution left for our kids to deal with in New Mexico, when wealthy corporations leave the waste behind.

When it comes to energy, New Mexico needs energy responsibility, not dominance. We can create jobs that leverage workers skills by reclaiming, remediating and restoring land; and building sustainable and renewable projects that enhance our communities. New Mexicans know what resilience looks like. We have weathered booms and busts for the last 100 years of so-called “energy dominance” and we’re ready for something better — a truly clean energy future that honors our land, creates stable jobs and keeps our children healthy. Let’s encourage investment in prosperity through restoration and responsibility, not dominance.