{"id":44727,"date":"2024-03-29T18:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=44727"},"modified":"2024-04-01T10:42:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T17:42:18","slug":"understanding-the-state-land-commissioners-oil-gas-holdout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/understanding-the-state-land-commissioners-oil-gas-holdout\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the State Land Commissioner\u2019s Oil & Gas Holdout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Oil<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you aren\u2019t completely familiar with the ins and outs of the New Mexico State Land Office, you have company. It plays a significant role in state revenue by generating hundreds of millions of dollars every year for the state\u2019s public schools, universities and hospitals. I personally ran myself through a crash course on the office over the last few weeks, after a recent decision from Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard started flooding local headlines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, Garcia Richard announced she was withholding oil and gas leases on the state\u2019s most valuable tracts. The move prompted predictable criticism from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and some state Republicans. They want those tracts tapped, like right now. But Garcia Richard says her decision to hold off until royalty rates are hiked will net the office\u2019s beneficiaries (schools and hospitals) hundreds of millions of dollars more than if drilling began today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that leaves you scratching your head through questions like, \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t the commissioner raise the rate herself?\u201d or, \u201cCouldn\u2019t she issue one-year leases at the current rate and hike it up next year once the Legislature signs off?\u201d again, you\u2019re not alone. But, during my interview with Garcia Richard, she answers every one of my conceptual questions and thoroughly explains how she came to what is clearly a decision that took quite a bit of consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a stretch to say she\u2019s been thinking about it since 2019. That\u2019s the first time her office urged lawmakers to raise the state\u2019s oil and gas royalty rate, something only they can change. That year, and every year since, rate increases have failed somewhere along their way through the Roundhouse. This year\u2019s proposal hit a roadblock in the Senate Finance Committee. The only question of mine she couldn\u2019t answer was why bills to take more money from oil and gas companies and give it to schools and hospitals have failed each of the last five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in accepting that a rate increase is not in her direct control, she says she took the action she could. In her mind, sitting on those resources for now is the right decision for her office’s beneficiaries and New Mexico\u2019s voters \u2014 the only two groups to whom she\u2019s beholden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil and gas companies make their decisions based on their bottom line. And Garcia Richard says she\u2019s taking up that same mentality, which she explained to me during our interview. \u201cWe live in a capitalist system\u2026 but when a public official has greed on behalf of public-school kids, somehow that\u2019s not acceptable?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not going to tell you what to think about the commissioner\u2019s decision, but at the very least, make sure you understand exactly how she came to it before you draw your conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Lou DiVizio Senior Producer\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n