Holly president says gas cap proposal would force closure of Artesia refinery
From Press Release
ARTESIA — A proposal to cap greenhouse gases in New Mexico would cause “devastating harm” to the Navajo Refinery in Artesia, but would have little effect on global greenhouse gas emissions, Dave Lamp, the president of Holly Corporation, the refinery’s parent company, told the Environmental Improvement Board (EIB).
New Energy Economy has petitioned the state EIB to limit greenhouse gas emissions New Mexico companies could emit.
Public hearings already have been held in Roswell Wednesday and Clovis Thursday. Public hearings are scheduled in:
- Artesia at the Artesia Recreation Center, 612 N. Eighth St., 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31
- Carlsbad at the Pecos River Village Conference Center, 711 Muscatel Ave., 5-9 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31
- Hobbs at the Lea County Event Center, 5101 N. Lovington Highway, 2-8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 1
- Clovis at the Clovis Civic Center, Enchantment II Ballroom, 801 Schepps Blvd., 2-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 2
- Farmington at the Farmington Civic Center, 200 W. Arrington, Exhibit Hall 1, from 2-8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8
Meetings were held in Roswell Wednesday and in Clovis Thursday on the New Mexico Environment Department’s cap-and-trade regulatory proposal, which is being considered by the EIB in addition to the New Energy Economy proposal.
In written testimony filed with the EIB, Lamp called the New Energy Economy proposal “unprecedented, untested and extremist,” and said it “amounts to a slow death sentence for Holly Corporation in New Mexico.”
Lamp said the proposal would eventually drive the company out of the state.
“The New Energy Economy proposal ought to be called the Increase New Mexico Unemployment Act, because that’s what it would do,” Lamp said. “It amounts to state-imposed economic sanctions on the people of New Mexico, forcing employers to assume higher costs that would make them uncompetitive with other businesses elsewhere in the United States and the world.”
And yet the proposal will do little to decrease global greenhouse gases, Lamp said. … For the rest of the story, subscribe in print and on the web.
