FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 3, 2017
Contact: James Hallinan (505) 660-2216
Albuquerque, NM – Attorney General Hector Balderas released the following statement regarding the decision of a federal appeals court today to block President Trump’s decision to delay an EPA rule curbing methane emissions from new oil and gas operations:
“New Mexico schoolchildren deserve to be properly compensated for the oil and gas extracted from our state and they deserve to breathe clean air in the Land of Enchantment. The federal appeals court blocking President Trump’s roll back of the Methane Rule is a win for New Mexico families, businesses and our environment. My office will continue to fight to hold the Trump Administration accountable when they try to harm New Mexico children and families.”
Attorney General Balderas intervened to support the BLM’s 2016 rule reducing venting and flaring of methane from oil and gas production on federal lands, against challenges brought by industry and other states in federal court in Wyoming. New Mexico is home to the largest methane hot spot in the nation. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas and former California Attorney General Kamala Harris also previously filed a motion to intervene in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties and Resource Conservation Rule case, in order to defend the commonsense rule and secure the environmental and fiscal benefits it will provide to New Mexican families. On New Mexico’s federal public lands, the value of vented and flared gas not currently subject to royalty payments towards New Mexico public schools is an estimated $6.7 to $8.1 million per year.
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