OPINION: Rollback of bonding requirements will hurt New Mexicans

In a significant blow to New Mexico’s communities and public lands, the Department of the Interior has announced its intention to roll back key federal bonding requirements for oil and gas companies that drill on our national public lands. These bonding requirements ensure that the companies that profit from drilling — not taxpayers — clean up and cap wells when they have finished producing oil and gas.

Our state budget is already losing money on oil and gas drilling since Congress cut the federal oil and gas royalty rate down to 12.5% in July (a level that is far below our state royalty rate of 25%). This summer, New Mexico lost out on an estimated $52 million from one sale alone.

New Mexicans can’t afford to watch even more critical revenue slip through our fingers by paying to clean and cap abandoned wells when irresponsible drillers leave town. Unfortunately, that is exactly what will happen under this misguided bonding requirement rollback. New Mexico will lose money that could be going toward our schools, our roads and programs that support our families and children — important needs that our elected leaders should take seriously.

New Mexico communities are united in calling for fiscal responsibility in public lands management. Nearly 9 in 10 voters in our state say they want to keep the bonding requirements for oil and gas companies intact, rather than being forced to pick up the bill for drillers who have made a mess on our shared public lands. Our state isn’t alone in expressing these values: 90% of people in Western states agree that oil and gas companies should foot the clean-up bill. Expecting oil companies to take care of their clean-up costs on our public lands is just common sense.

Across the country, there are already more than 10,000 idle wells that will cost taxpayers up to $15 billion to clean up. This orphaned well crisis is guaranteed to worsen if drillers are given a free pass to make a mess without consequence. A new analysis from Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship reveals that oil and gas companies will be poised to drill up to 3.8 million wells — resulting in $753.5 billion in financial liabilities that our local communities and taxpayers could be forced to shoulder once bonding regulations are rolled back. How heavy of a financial burden will the Department of the Interior allow the oil and gas industry to place on New Mexicans before we see common-sense accountability in federal public lands management?

At the end of the day, it is both our wallets and our communities’ health that will pay the price for dangerous abandoned wells that contaminate our public lands, drinking water and air when left untreated. The coming rollback of bonding requirements for oil and gas leasing on federal public lands is a slap in the face to hardworking New Mexicans who deserve and demand better from Washington.