Media coverage of our area’s oil and gas industry isn’t always as fair as we desire, but a recent Bloomberg article did a good job capturing the economic concerns many of us have over a proposed ban on fracking on public lands. As most of you already know, much of the oil and gas in Southeastern New Mexico is beneath public lands, while much of the oil in Texas is on private property. A ban of fracking on public lands would shift production away from New Mexico (where the revenue is greatly needed) over to wealthier Texas. Members of our oil and gas community did a great job explaining their concerns in this article, which is viewable on Bloomberg’s web page: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-25/the-crown-jewel-of-the-shale-patch-braces-for-a-biden-ban. Our oil and gas companies in the area have recently outlined many of their own developments which will improve on the environment without destroying New Mexico’s economy.

From the Office of Mayor Dale Janway