Governor's Office and Legislative Leadership Senate Committees

It has come to my attention that the State of New Mexico lacks any specific regulations on the practice of fracking. I have further come to learn that the State of New Mexico does not know the impacts that fracking is having on our health, water, and environment. In fact, I have come to learn that the State of New Mexico apparently does not even know the percentage of wells that are drilled for drilled for multi-stage hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling versus conventional vertical drilling.

For the sake of our environment, health, and long-term economic health, we need to put a temporary pause on issuing new fracking permits so that we can regulate it. This is why I urge you to support Senate Bill 149. This will not hurt our economy, as the oil industry lobbyists keep falsely insisting. It will temporarily pause issuing only new permits, while the state has time to understand fracking and to regulate it. All currently operating oil wells will continue to operate and generate revenue for New Mexico. Please do not give in to the oil industry lies and threats that our economy will suffer from this, because it won't. Regulating fracking is in the best long term interest of our economy.

Respectfully,

Air pollution from fracking has created a health emergency for impacted communities across our State. Satellite measurements confirm methane emissions and associated toxic gasses like hydrogen sulfide are two to three times greater than industry reports. If the oil and gas industry is lying about this, what else are they not telling us? Pleas for help from communities like those in Greater Chaco have fallen on deaf ears at our federal agencies, but NM legislators have a constitutional obligation to ensure the health and safety of all our citizens.

Please support SB 459 to put a pause on fracking and allow our State to learn the truth before it's too late.

Respectfully,

This is not good business for New Mexico. The fracking industry has been riding a bubble of debt since its inception. Even the Houston Chronicle, a major newspaper near the epicentre of the fracking boom, recently asked, "How long can the fracking spending spree last?" Bankrupt companies will leave our State saddled with a legacy of environmental disasters from fracking - including a $43 million dollar sinkhole near Carlsbad and still unknown costs of potential water contamination.

Our legislators have a moral and constitutional responsibility to consider the current and potential impacts of this unregulated, reckless industry. I urge you to support SB459 and put a pause on fracking to ensure we are protecting the health and safety of all New Mexicans. It's not only common sense, it's smart business.

Respectfully,

The Albuquerque basin aquifer provides drinking water to over 800,000 New Mexicans. This continuous, interconnected aquifer stretches across the entire Middle Rio Grande Valley and sits on top of one of only four active rift zones on the planet. The unique geography makes our aquifer especially susceptible to contamination by any type of oil drilling. Even industry scientists like Dr. Alex Rinehart, from NM Tech, acknowledge that the risk of damaging freshwater aquifers "in areas with shallow water tables would be relatively high..."

Not only is fracking is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, but the industrial wastes that are the by-products of fracking, known as "produced water", are also exempt from regulation, despite being radioactive and contaminated with heavy metals and other carcinogens. These loopholes leave the drinking water for all of central NM vulnerable to pending permits to frack near Rio Racho. I urge you to live up to your constitutional and moral obligation to protect our waters and support SB 459. Pausing fracking to ensure our citizens are protected is more than good policy - its the right thing to do.

Respectfully,

Letter to Governor and legislators

Dear New Mexico Legislators and Governor Lujan Grisham,

We the undersigned organizations urge you to support the Fracking Pause Bill, Senate Bill 149, to protect public health, our environment, and help stop climate change. Hydraulic fracturing is a poorly-regulated and dangerous method of oil and gas extraction that has boomed in New Mexico for over the past decade. Fracking is poisoning our state’s drinking water and air, and exacerbating the climate crisis. Fracking and its infrastructure are plaguing frontline New Mexico communities and workers with well-documented, severe, public health and safety impacts. These include explosions and leaks that contaminate drinking water, and air pollution that increases infant mortality and causes asthma that exacerbates severe covid-19 symptoms. Produced water has been found to be radioactive and being carried off the oil fields into communities, homes, schools and businesses. We need the report and risk assessment to understand the long term health and fiscal impacts of this industry.

On January 27th, President Biden declared a pause on all new oil and gas leases on Federal lands, highlighting the climate crisis and the need for immediate government intervention. New Mexico must take this opportunity to reassess the impacts of fracking on our state's precious resources by similarly pausing all new fracking permits on state land. This bill calls for a four-year pause in the issuance of new fracking permits and requires reporting to the legislature on critical concerns that regulations have failed to address until now.

In the 2019 session, Senator Sedillo Lopez requested that the NM Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department give a presentation on fracking in our State to the Senate Conservation Committee. The presentation revealed just how broken our current regulatory system is and highlighted the serious side effects of fracking that are ignored at present. Permits to drill are currently approved with no consideration for the health impacts on our communities or the cumulative damage to our climate, aquifers, and cultural resources.

Research shows that those who live closest to oil and gas operations are at the highest risk for developing negative health outcomes. In New Mexico, indigenous communities, communities of color, and frontline regions are disproportionately situated by fracking facilities. Fracking is having a devastating impact on New Mexico. Our public health is suffering, environmental racism compounds and continues, our drinking water is contaminated, our environment desecrated, and sacred cultural heritage continually demolished. We cannot let New Mexico become a sacrifice zone for an unregulated oil and gas industry.

New Mexico can stop fracking new permits, protect our people and climate, and be a world leader in renewable energy development and economic reform by pausing all new fracking permits on state lands.