By NELLA DOMENICI
Guest Columnist
I am pleased to join the Permian Basin Centennial celebration. In many ways, it is a celebration of New Mexico’s national, pre-eminent leadership in energy production; its contribution to our energy independence and free world leadership; and a tribute to the men and women who work in the oil fields.
We are blessed with the Permian Basin. We are third in solar energy production, at the top for wind, and sixth in the country for geothermal potential. We are the state that provided the know-how to unleash nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
New Mexico should have a senator who appreciates that our state is an energy producing state, appreciates our abundance of oil and gas and other types of energy, and who believes we should be the world’s showcase for producing natural gas and oil in the most environmentally sensitive ways.
New Mexico should have a senator who will put New Mexico in the spotlight as a Center of Excellence for developing the best technologies and make New Mexico the headquarters for testing pilot programs to reduce greenhouse gases. I will be that senator.
It is time to flip the script. We have experienced too much Martin Heinrich and not enough support for the oil and gas industry.
The world needs more energy — not less. It needs more oil and gas — not less.
Artificial Intelligence will make enormous demands for energy. By 2050 there will be 2 billion more people and a world economy twice as big as today.
Modern life can’t exist without oil and gas and the thousands of products made from petroleum products.
Martin Heinrich wants to shut down the oil and gas industry.
Without products made from oil and gas our lives would be less modern.
Your house would have no roof, insulation, or flooring – most made from petroleum products. Your wardrobe would be reduced – no spandex, polyester, nylon, or vegan leather. There would be nothing made of plastic including 20 percent of the parts needed to build electric vehicles. If my opponent had his way, he would ban gas appliances including stoves.
Oil and gas production is not the problem. No particular energy source is the problem. The problem is emissions.
The industry, our national laboratories, and universities are working to develop technologies to reduce emissions. Energy companies are some of the most sophisticated, innovative high-tech companies in the world, and they are using their expertise to reduce emissions. One energy company’s research and development budget is almost two-thirds of the total EPA budget.
There are many promising technologies at work in the Permian ranging from satellites in the sky to new sensors on the ground. At least one is developing an all-electric drilling rig. Others are using renewables in their operations.
Most are greatly reducing flaring through innovation. The technology exists to detect and stop methane leaks in real time; to suck CO2 out of the air; to extract lithium from drilling byproducts and to recycle produced water. Yet government agencies are heaping more and more regulations on them as a backdoor to reducing production.
My opponent supports the Biden administration’s anti-oil and gas policies —including more than 90 separate sets of regulations promulgated by EPA.
Those who advocate for reducing oil and gas production are really advocating for more poverty in the world and an unworkable state budget in New Mexico.
New Mexico should have a senator who understands that 50 percent of the state’s budget for education and crime fighting public safety is paid for by oil and gas royalty payments; that oil and gas jobs are high paying — more than 130,000 of them in New Mexico alone; and that domestically produced oil and gas makes gasoline at the pump and electricity to heat and cool our homes reliable and affordable.
My father was a champion for the oil and gas industry. He believed in all types of energy and recognized that energy security is national security.
I will be that senator.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Nella Domenici is the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and is challenging incumbent Democrat Martin Heinrich.)
