Op-Ed: Fix Oil & Gas Leasing System
Here is an excerpt of an opinion piece that James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, wrote in the (Santa Fe) New Mexican.
In New Mexico, we have lived through many boom-and-bust cycles of the oil and gas industry. But recent years have shown just how much we need to break this cycle — particularly as we plan for the transition from oil and gas to clean energy — by tipping the scales away from the oil and gas corporations and back toward New Mexicans who have shouldered the consequences. That’s especially true for our state’s children, whose school funding is too dependent on the vagaries of international oil and gas markets.
Thankfully, this could all be changed, but it will require a commitment from the Biden administration to fixing the federal government’s out-of-date oil and gas leasing system and putting our communities before oil and gas CEOs. Read full article