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“We Told You So” Oil Prices Illustrate Presumptuous Transition Away from Fossil Fuels

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There’s no joy in saying “we told you so,” not when this many people are experiencing a massive economic setback due to unbelievably high gas prices. 

Beginning last year, the federal government, and many other elected officials, began putting out press releases beaming about the upcoming “transition” away from fossil fuels. In anticipation of this transition, they began to enact a variety of policies and plans designed to speed up this “transition.”

The federal government introduced several stays on drilling on federal land. When those stays didn’t hold up in court, the federal government simply slowed the approval process. Penalties at the state level were enhanced, often haphazardly, and unreasonable moratoriums were enacted. Their language seemed to make it seem like this “transition” was on the immediate horizon, despite the fact that, for example, a very small number of people own electric cars. 

Many of us in Southeast New Mexico expressed our severe concerns with this sudden policy change.  We felt like these changes were moving too quickly and largely focused on the domestic production side of the equation. We expressed concerns that, as the demand for oil and gas grew (due to declining COVID-19 numbers), couldn’t we be increasingly forced to rely on foreign (often hostile) interest? 

We also wanted to know why, in 2021, we were being forced to talk about “moving past the oil and gas industry” instead of simply “making improvements to the oil and gas industry.” We asked if it seemed unwise taking action which impacted our domestic supply side of oil and gas, when there seemed to be no evidence of a reduction in demand. Many people also made the point that domestic production is much more environmentally responsible than overseas production. 

Here we are in 2022.

There are, admittedly, wide varieties of reasons as to why gas prices are so high. The tragedy in Ukraine is a part of the issue, but certainly not the only variable.  Gas prices were skyrocketing months earlier.  And while some of those reasons are beyond our ability to control, the whole point to our opposition to the overly enthusiastic “transition” away from oil and gas is that we need to do everything we can on the issues we can control.

We support Rep. Yvette Herrell’s call to increase the number of federal lease sales, and to open up sales that have been postponed due to court orders. We support re-opening projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline as quickly as possible. We call on the state to end the moratorium on Santo Petroleum’s proposed project around Carlsbad. Recent global events have made it abundantly clear that we have a national obligation toward pursuing energy independence. 

We’ve been reminded, the hard way, that our country isn’t anywhere close to being ready for a “transition” away from an oil and gas economy. The resources of the Delaware Basin are a national resource- let’s treat them that way.

Sincerely,

Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway 

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