A proposal has been made to modify Valencia County’s zoning ordinance to allow the development of natural resources in the county. I support the modification which is patterned on an earlier adjustment made to allow solar development. Passage of the ordinance itself would not allow natural resource development, such as drilling for oil or gas, at any location in the county. It simply would allow individuals and companies to present proposals for natural resource development which then would be considered by the county’s zoning department and the County Commission.
But, why have natural resource development in Valencia County?
Nationally, natural gas prices have tripled and gasoline prices, on average, are above $5 a gallon. Many people are hurting from this alone, but because the creation of numerous products and the movement of most products is dependent on hydrocarbons, more pain is coming. Are we on the road to a major recession or a depression? Probably. Gasoline prices are only going to drop if more oil is produced. Now, remarkably, considering his earlier statements, President Biden has asked oil producers to produce more oil.
Our company wants to do that by opening a new oil and gas province in central New Mexico - in southern Valencia County. To accomplish this would require commitment as well as tolerance for great monetary risk. However, were we to be successful in this endeavor, it would not only assist the country and the state, but it would help Valencia County become more prosperous. More jobs and businesses would be created, land values should rise, and schools should find it easier to fund needed improvements.
But, Progressives oppose drilling in Valencia County. True to form, they make apocalyptic predictions. They claim fresh water zones would be ruined, but this is nonsense. The state long has had very stringent requirements and inspections to protect fresh water zones. They claim that drilling for oil would use too much of the county’s water; yet, drilling and completing a 8,000 foot well (which is deeper than most of the wells we anticipate drilling) would use about 1/10th of the water used in one year by an active carwash. They claim that methane emissions from wells will be harmful; yet New Mexico has passed the most stringent methane-release rules in the nation – by 2026 98% of methane emissions must be captured.
Additionally, they raise fear by claiming that “fracking” will occur. They convolute “fracking” with horizontal-drilling -- which in Valencia County likely would not take place for years, if ever. Fracking simply means to fracture rock. The first well was hydraulically fracked in New Mexico about 1951 which allows the oil or gas explorer to target the zone more precisely to be fractured. Fracking occurs a thousand or more feet below fresh water zones. The chances of fracking into a fresh water zone are minuscule. Consider this: the oil and gas explorer goes to great effort not to frack into oil-contaminated formation water which may lie near an oil zone. If he fracks into formation water, his well may “water-out” and ruin the well.
One hysterical claim for looming catastrophe is never enough. Progressives wrap their main catastrophic claims in ancillary, but related, catastrophic claims. We saw this recently as both the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Albuquerque Journal gave wings to a notion propagated by an environmental “non-profit” — that living in an oil and gas producing area diminishes one’s health. This was of particular interest to me because I grew up in Eddy County approximately 3 miles from a refinery. I find it odd that a 2019 NMDOH report states that lower-respiratory-disease and cancer diminished in New Mexico between 2010-2019 — years when thousands of oil and gas wells were drilled in the state. Also, in comparing Eddy County and Valencia County, I found a UNM study which shows that Valencia County had more new cancer cases then did Eddy County (true also when one adjusts for population)— and this even though Valencia County doesn’t have a single producing oil or gas well in it and Eddy has thousands of them.
I also looked at the Wellbeing In the Nation Network to see how the two counties compared. In 2017 (the most recent report I could find) the network judged 65% of those in Eddy County to be “thriving” while only 44% of the residents of Valencia County were “thriving,” and 56% were “struggling.” Perhaps this relates to the fact that Eddy County’s median household income was more than $14,000 higher than that of Valencia County.
I hope we can help change that.
Harvey Yates, Jr. was born and raised in Artesia, NM where he worked on a drilling rig at age 14. He also worked as a cowboy and farmhand; then became a rancher and later created his own oil company. Yates has an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and a law degree from Cornell Law School. He has ranched in Valencia County for approximately thirty years and has written numerous opinion pieces for New Mexico news sources.
