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The fracking boom in the Permian Basin which straddles West Texas and southeastern New Mexico largely coincided with Republican control of much of New Mexico’s state government. Many of those elected to office in the early years of the shale rush promptly began dismantling barriers to extracting the most oil and gas at the cheapest price: Soon after winning the governorship in 2010, Republican Susana Martinez shuffled key employees in the environment department into positions where they had little expertise. During her eight-year tenure, the state legislature slashed the budget for the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division (OCD), which oversees the oil and gas industry, by 25 percent. By 2018, half of all inspection and compliance positions were vacant.
Debate over New Mexico oil and gas industry regulations gets national spotlight kob.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kob.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Total spills were at the lowest level since 2013, the report read.
Increases in emissions could be tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report read, which drove down fuel demand while production continued to grow, meaning less natural gas could be sent to market and was potentially released through venting or burned through flaring.
In New Mexico, 88 percent of the reported spills occurred in Eddy and Lea counties in the southeast corner of the state and the prolific Permian Basin which spreads across the border into West Texas.
Despite the decline in spills, New Mexico still had double the spills of Wyoming and more than triple Colorado’s, the report read.
Colorado Air Quality Control Commission Approves Environmental Local Government Industry Group Agreement To Lower Methane Emissions From Oil And Gas Wellpads pollutiononline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pollutiononline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission has approved a compromise proposal, negotiated by environmental groups, local governments, and industry groups, for a first-in-the-nation rule to require some pneumatic control devices at oil-and-gas facilities to be retrofit to lower methane emissions. A coalition of conservation groups Sierra Club, Earthworks, and Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Earthjustice partnered with other environmental groups, local governments, and industry to tackle the problem of emissions from pneumatic controllers.