Adrian Hedden
El Rito Media News
achedden@currentargus.com

Republicans in southeast New Mexico said they were preparing to defend the region’s defining oil and gas industry, while batting away Democrat proposals GOP leaders said could derail the state’s main economic driver.

The 2025 Legislative Session opens Jan. 21, running until March 22 at the New Mexico Capitol in Santa Fe. Lawmakers from across the state will convene during the session to propose bills that will first be debated by multiple committees before facing votes on the House and Senate floors.

From there, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will have until April 11 to sign or veto bills. Any bill not acted upon by the deadline will be automatically “pocket vetoed” by the governor.

Ahead of the session’s start, lawmakers had from Jan. 2 to 17 to prefile bills, with several already published by senators and House representatives.

New Mexico Sen. Larry Scott (R-42) represents parts of Eddy, Lea and Chaves counties in the southeast corner of the state – a known Republican stronghold amid the Democrat-controlled Legislature – and said proposals already put forth by the majority party were alarming for their potential impacts on industry.

Oil and gas contributed about $15.2 billion in overall income to New Mexico in 2023, according to a June 2024 report by the Legislative Finance Committee, accounting for almost half of the state’s overall income.

But with that windfall came environmental concerns from Democrats.

House Bill 35, pre-filed by Rep. Debra Sarinana (D-21) of Albuquerque, would establish “children’s health protection zones” throughout the state and require increased monitoring of oil and gas operations in those areas – defined in the bill as any space a mile from the property line of a school.

Scott, an engineer in the oil and gas industry, said the protection zones had no basis in science and that he and fellow GOP members in the House and Senate were ready to push back on such proposals.

“The regulatory environment with respect to oil and gas will be at the forefront of progressive initiatives,” Scott said. “I think we’ll be playing a lot of defense. I think we can make a case that (setbacks) are completely unnecessary.”

Sarinana debated the benefits of her proposal during interim committee meetings held across the state in the months ahead of the session.

HB 35 was one of four bills Sarinana pre-filed to address environmental issues, joining bills to ban new air pollution emissions in areas where ozone, or smog, levels are high; increase state authority to penalize operators that release emissions; and encourage the use of electric school buses by New Mexico public schools.

“We’re looking at the health and welfare of our kids. That’s why we’re doing this. They’re going to school and doing their jobs, and still getting exposed to this,” Sarinana said of the setback language during a Sept. 13 visit to Hobbs for a meeting of the interim Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee, of which she is a member.

Scott questioned whether such legislation would gain enough support, even from Democrats, to pass through the Legislature. Still, he worried that Lujan Grisham’s administration could impose the rule as policy even if the bills fail.

He said this was done before by the governor and her cabinet with a mandate requiring newly built businesses and homes to include electric vehicle charging capabilities and also with regulations enacted by the New Mexico Environment Department in 2022 to mandate more inspections for natural gas leaks at oil facilities and to require car dealerships in New Mexico to sell more electric vehicles.

“I think the current administration has used regulation when they couldn’t get similar policy through the legislative process,” Scott said. “That’s wrong.”

Sen. David Gallegos (R-41), representing Eddy and Lea counties, questioned budget requests by agencies such as the New Mexico Environment Department to hire more full-time employees devoted to oil and gas oversight.

“My fear is they’re going to look into the enforcement side, and write more tickets for oil and gas,” he said. “We don’t want to impact the industry that pays for children’s schools.”

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.