New Mexico Outlets: "New Mexico Public Land Offered for Oil Drilling Amid Calls for Federal Energy Reforms"
Originally published by the Carlsbad Current-Argus, a piece syndicated by other New Mexico news outlets cites a new RFF report about the state's energy transition.
Washington, DC-based nonprofit Resources for the Future focused on energy production in the Permian Basin of New Mexico in a study published Monday, contending the region’s economy could be threatened by its singular focus on oil and gas.
The study compared the economic impacts of extraction on the Permian and the San Juan Basin in northwest New Mexico, where natural gas drilling recently declined leading to economic hardship for local communities, the report read...
Efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions could reduce demand for fossil fuels, the report read, potentially leading to economic declines in southeast New Mexico and other fossil-fuel based regions throughout the US.
This necessitates policy and research into economic diversification, read the study, to insulate oilfield communities from future downturns in the oil and gas sectors.
“Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are projected to reduce demand for oil and natural gas, creating economic risks for the hundreds of communities and hundreds of thousands of workers who depend on those industries,” read the report. “However, very little research has sought to identify policy options for building economic resilience in oil- and gas-producing communities.”
[More about this report is detailed in the full story.]
