What is New Mexico doing to cut fossil fuel pollution?
New Mexico is home to part of the Permian Basin, the U.S.’ busiest oilfield producing about 5.8 million barrels of crude per day (bpd), almost half of about 12 million bpd nationwide.
It led to New Mexico rising during the recent boom in production to second in the U.S. in oil, after Texas with which New Mexico shares the Permian.
The economic benefit also brought worsening air pollution in the state, said Jon Goldstein with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), necessitating strong government action.
That came in the form of two rulemakings at the state’s Oil Conservation Division (OCD) and Environment Department (NMED) in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The OCD’s rules banned routine flaring, the burning of excess natural gas, and required all operators capture 98 percent of produced gas by 2026.
NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.NMED targeted ground-level ozone, a cancer-causing pollutant created when chemicals emitted into the air by oil and gas operations interact with sunlight, adding leak detection and repair requirements, along with requirements that facilities be outfitted with new technologies to prevent emissions.
These regulations should be a model for the rest of the world, Goldstein said Wednesday as the IEA report was released, to prevent environmental damage brought on by the energy sector.
“Efforts to get regulations in place are critical. There are a lot of people that are pushing rightly for a transition away from oil and gas and to cleaner forms of energy,” he said.
“Even if we were to do that tomorrow, having rules in place to limit methane pollution from oil and gas are still critical to make sure we mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.”
Goldstein said state agencies now need more funding from the Legislature to provide resources and personnel to enforce the new rules, following severe cuts, he said, during the administration of former-Gov. Susana Martinez which concluded in 2018.
“I think the state regulatory agencies need help. They would tell you that too,” he said. “There was some increase in funding last year, which is helping, but they’re still underwater from where they were.”
And as oil and gas operations in the state continue to grow, Goldstein called on energy companies to take their own actions to curb air pollution.
He named majors like Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum as recently making pledges to meet emission reduction goals, but worried that not all companies would do the same.
“It’s not like the oil and gas industry has been at a standstill in New Mexico,” he said. “It’s a very diverse industry. If you looked across the Permian, there are probably hundreds of companies that have wells. That’s why it’s important for New Mexico to get their state rules working.
Exxon on Tuesday released a report detailing its efforts to reduce flaring and air pollution.
The company, now the biggest operator in the region following an about $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources, said it cut flaring by 75 percent between 2019 and 2021.
The company said it planned to reach “net-zero,” meaning it would cut more emissions than it put out across its operations, by 2030.
Occidental said it achieved zero routine flaring across its U.S. operations in 2022, and retrofitted or removed about 95 percent of its high-bleed valves with low-bleed devices since 2020.
“There are certainly efforts from the industry itself to reduce emissions, which is important,” Goldstein said.
He said other countries that import oil and gas were also likely to continue calling for reduction goals from companies to bring their products into markets overseas, likely leading to greater efforts to reduce pollution in New Mexico and across the U.S.’ oilfields.
