By: Jane Tabet-Kirkpatrick
The menace of an oil rig perhaps has more than meets the eye.
The typical desert mirage is a hopeful image in the mind of the struggling traveler—with the promise of a quenching delight, they run towards its false security, expelling what little energy they have left in a last-minute effort of self-preservation. Desperately dropping to their knees, the traveler finds yet another cruel twist on the desert's game: the liquid salvation that touches their lips is not water, but oil. The traveler knows that this can not satisfy their thirst, but there is a hope that somehow it will. Despite all knowledge, the traveler still believes that oil can sustain. Yet, the traveler still intertwines their lips with this liquid, and kneels at the feet of this false god—praying that just this once, it will lead to the promise of reclamation.
New Mexico is a massive crude oil producing state, second only to Texas. Oil and gas is the state's economic powerhouse. Energy In Depth characterized it as, “fueled by an incredible oil and gas boom and strong consumer spending, New Mexico’s financial reserves reached about 52 percent of ongoing state spending this summer — a financial cushion of nearly $4.4 billion. And the geyser is still spewing.” The imagery of a spewing geyser of oil provokes an ambivalent feeling. Natural gas is an economic powerhouse for the state; however, it is also an ethical minefield when considering the obvious environmental concerns. The industry is growing directly in the face of reforms that experts continue to say will be necessary to curb the imminent climate disaster. New Mexico is not unlike the parable traveler—desperately seeking an oasis in balancing environmental ethics and economic prosperity.
Understanding the deeper issues of this ethical dilemma requires a background knowledge on New Mexico and its public policies that have created, over the decades, economic and social instability. New Mexico ranks as the worst state for childhood well-being and consistently ranks last in educational outcomes. As the U.S. state with the highest Hispanic/Latino population, many students experience language barriers and lack access to bilingual resources that can be used to teach content in a culturally informed manner. Further, due to the Public School Finance Act schools are funded through a general fund rather than through property tax. This creates a vacuum in the state budget that demands revenue from New Mexico’s homogeneous economy that is met by oil and gas. New Mexico has a public funding system that is based on a number of factors that are considered when distributing funds to schools throughout the state: like how much it costs to educate a high school student versus a first grader or adjustment factors for rural schools. This legislation is meant to curtail systemic inequalities that arose from traditional types of public school funding.
The oil and gas industry has had drastic effects on the New Mexican economy and has allowed the state to put forth initiatives that serve to help traditionally harmed communities that have gone without equal access to opportunities through bolstering funding to education . It enabled historic legislation to be passed and amplified positive public policy, attributed to the fact that the “surging oil production has allowed New Mexico in recent years to bolster public salaries, expand access to no-pay child care, and offer tuition-free college to its residents — while also setting aside billions of dollars in a variety of “rainy-day” emergency accounts and investment trusts.” These facts prompt an obvious ethical conundrum for the state. Can we continue borrowing against the future at such a heavy interest rate? While petroleum-fueled climate change continues to threaten, and while governments look for ways to fund robust public policy efforts to rectify the effects of poverty, poor education, and systemic racism, a serious examination of the long-term implications should be considered.
This seductive imagery of oil and gas as a transformative tool that can generate wealth for poor states is curtailed by the concerning level of control that the industry exhibits over New Mexican politics. The control of oil and gas over the political sphere should raise ethical eyebrows. Combined, the oil and gas industry has contributed more than 2.5 million dollars to New Mexican political candidates and committees. Their donations crossed party lines, but heavily favored the New Mexican GOP candidate for Governor, Mark Ronchetti, at half a million dollars. The oil and gas company ran political advertisements advocating its own influence in New Mexico public funding, mentioning the influence of oil and gas tax revenue and its support of education in New Mexico. These ads make sure to mention the influence of oil and gas tax revenue and its support of education in New Mexico creating a perceived idea of dependency. More concerning, the ad ironically carries the viewer through cinematic landscapes while a heroic hymn plays in the background. The gas industry is charged with directly harming the very landscapes it uses to propagate its image. The pollution that is created from oil drilling and fracking harms the very populations that industry claims to help: as stated by Lucas Herndon of Progress Now, a group working to stop fracking, “New Mexico, oil and gas communities live with some of the highest in the nation asthma rates, increased earthquakes from fracking activity, and an unsustainable economic rollercoaster.”
The reality of New Mexico's position is puzzling: one can not simply dismiss how the tax subsidies assist New Mexico in rectifying generational harm that has been caused by systemic oppressions. It begs the pondering of what obligations the government owes its future citizens, and should that be at the expense of currently harmed populations—or vice versa. As New Mexico looks to continue providing comprehensive government programs to address the side effects of poverty, one hopes that New Mexico has not slipped into a false oily promise land from which it can never return.
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