Tell the NM Oil Conservation Commission we want oil and gas operators paying to clean up their toxic pollution!

Please modernize NM's oil and gas bonding rules

The state has an opportunity to solve the growing problem of oil and gas infrastructure that needs to be closed and cleaned up as wells and facilities age and complete operations. Clean-up is important for public health and safety and is an opportunity for a source of good-paying jobs in the southeast and northwest parts of the state. Oftentimes, hardworking, New Mexican taxpayers are left on the hook to cover the clean-up costs of abandoned or orphaned wells. We need to change current laws and rules with incentives to close and clean up low or non-producing wells and prevent toxic chemicals like methane and benzene from polluting the air and seeping into groundwater. Currently, the oil and gas industry’s “insurance coverage” for clean-up doesn’t include enough funding to address the actual costs. Community members, social justice advocates, and environmental organizations from across New Mexico are coming together to make these needed changes by filing a petition at the Oil Conservation Commission. The petition proposes to update how much “insurance coverage” the oil and gas industry must take out before drilling, creating new jobs, and protecting New Mexicans’ health, air, land, and water. Specifically, the petition includes 3 elements: 1.) Updating financial assurance laws to require bonds that fully cover the costs of clean up and well plugging for each well. 2.) Updating clean-up laws and how wells are categorized to clarify who is responsible for plugging and cleanup when wells stop producing. 3.) Oversight of ownership transfers that will ensure companies have the financial resources to properly clean up and plug well sites. It’s critical that our decision-makers hear from hardworking New Mexicans who want oil and gas operators to pay to fully clean up their messes. Recent polling shows that an overwhelming 90% of New Mexicans support requiring oil and gas companies, rather than taxpayers, to pay for all of the clean-up and land restoration costs after drilling is finished. Please modernize our woefully outdated bonding rules.