Common Sense Bills
I attended the Senate Conservation committee last Thursday morning at the Roundhouse, and picked up a copy of the Rio Grande Sun.
It’s interesting to read Senator Townsend’s guest editorial, a repeat of his 20 minute commentary at the hearing on the proposed, SB23, Oil and Gas Royalty Increases. As I stated during public comments, New Mexico is now the second oil producer, after Texas, in the nation.
Think money, yet we compete with Mississippi for the lowest per capita income in the nation. Seems our oil wealth flows right down the Rio Grande to Texas billionaires. Yet, Senator Townsend voted against raising our royalty rates, rates that would apply to only our best state lands in the Permian Basin, from 20% currently, to 25%. That 25% royalty rate is the same rate Texans have enjoyed for years.
Also, Senator Townsend is against a 1 mile setback from our kids schools for any new, not existing, oil infrastructure. There is some flexibility in the set back proposal, and remember, today’s fracking drilling technology can drill over a mile horizontally.
These are just two of the common sense bills that Senator Townsend and also Senator Larry Scott opposed at the Conservation Committee hearing, and which Senator Townsend mentions in his guest editorial. I wish a lot more of the oil money would stay in our state, so that we’re not continuing to compete with Mississippi for the lowest per capita income, and having to worry about our kid’s health while attending school.
Ward B. McCartney
Belen