Times are tough for New Mexican business owners — and government regulations aren't helping.
At
a recent town hall meeting in Farmington, attendees worried that new
state rules would harm small oil and gas firms. The owner of one such
firm said that these regulations put him "on a death train,
economically."
These folks could soon face an
even bigger threat, this time from Washington. Congress is considering
the Methane Waste Prevention Act, a plan to reduce the amount of the
potent greenhouse gas emitted from oil and gas wells.
Reducing
methane emissions is an excellent idea, but this plan misses the mark.
This bill would do little to help the environment. And it would drown
New Mexico's energy firms in red tape, robbing the state of crucial
economic benefits.
This bill takes a
one-size-fits-all approach to methane reduction. It would require all
energy producers operating on federal and tribal lands to recapture 85
percent of methane their operations release within three years, and 99
percent within five.
That means small energy
producers operating on Navajo tribal lands have to meet the same target
as ExxonMobil's $5.6 billion operation in Lea County. That doesn't make
sense — especially considering firms of all sizes already recapture
methane.
After all, methane is a major component of
natural gas. Recaptured emissions can be converted into valuable energy
and sold to consumers. Firms don't need regulations to tell them that.
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