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Survey Says!......

Democracy Santa Fe — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:53:28 +0000

At the recent "Galisteo Growth Management Area Workshop" put on by Planning Works, participants were asked to take a poll on growth issues in Santa Fe County. Here is one of the questions, with results.

That's right folks, COUNTY SHOULD BAN OIL AND GAS EXTRACTION, 87%!!

Now, granted, there were only about 30 people surveyed and 81 percent of them live in the Galisteo region, but they were the ones who cared enough to go to this event, so their opinion should matter, no?

Entertaining is the one guy, the three-percenter who shows up on all the questions gunning for more growth and more extraction on almost all the questions. Sorry, buddy, but it's basically 97 to 3.

We hope to have a biased report sometime soon from one of our members who participated in this workshop.

Click here to download the complete Agenda and survey results.

Also, another interesting poll, from the New Mexico Business Weekly, on the question of state vs county authority when it comes to regulating drilling: poll results

Despite how skewed it was (like not including the choice, "Counties should have the authority" and having two choices AGAINST county authority), and considering their readership, one can see a definite majority in favor counties deciding for themselves who may pollute within their borders.

54% said that "Counties should have a say" versus a total of 38% saying both "No, they shouldn't", and "State should be the authority". Also, the "other" choice, where one could leave a comment, has a majority of comments in favor of county authority. Read them here.

It seems that poll after poll is showing that Santa Fe County can really get behind a move to assert its own authority, such as banning oil and gas drilling right here, right now. Let's not let the fossil energy corporations forget it!

Authority Fight is on!

Democracy Santa Fe — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:48:20 +0000

There are some tasty treats in this article from our state comedian Bob G., like this one:

"The thought that a locally elected body can just take your livelihood away is scary, especially when there are tens of millions of dollars in expenses involved in projects,"

What's better, locally elected, or corporate boardroom? I can't remember....

Try it like this, Bob: The thought that a paper fiction corporation with no liability can just come on your land and screw it up is just scary, especially when our water and wildlife resources, which are priceless, are at stake.

It's just not as funny that way.

But wait! There's more!

"I'm not sure any judge would ever rule that someone can take a property right away from someone,"

Um, I think one way is called "eminent domain" and it involves the government, i.e. The People (theoretically), taking property away from someone for the good of the community. It's been abused lately, but I'm just saying....

Also interesting is this:

"But Gallagher said the issue of county authority must be resolved despite executive action, especially in Santa Fe, where the county unilaterally declared a year-long moratorium on drilling in the Galisteo Basin independently from state government."

I absolutely agree with Bob on that one, but they seem to have misspelled "unanimously".

Here's the story:

(apologies for the tiny type...)

Friday, July 25, 2008

Oil leaders Turn to courts on drilling

New Mexico Business Weekly - by Kevin Robinson-Avila NMBW Staff

The battle over where oil and gas companies can drill is heading to the courts.

he New Mexico Oil and Gas Association is preparing litigation to challenge Santa Fe County's authority to impose a moratorium on oil operations as part of an industry effort to clearly define the boundaries between state government authority and county jurisdiction, said association President Bob Gallagher.

Separately, Texas-based Approach Resources Inc. is already challenging, through the U.S. District Court in Santa Fe, a moratorium imposed by the Rio Arriba County Commission to block Approach's drilling plans near Tierra Amarilla.

"The litigation we're preparing regarding Santa Fe County will focus specifically on that county, but with the proper judgment, it will impact other counties like Rio Arriba by setting a legal precedent," Gallagher said. "We believe strongly that state law gives the authority to regulate the oil and gas industry solely to the state Oil Conservation Division and the Oil Conservation Commission. Moratoriums by counties should be pre-empted, because if every county were allowed to adopt their own separate rules and regulations, it would be mass confusion."

A favorable ruling by the courts in the association's litigation in Santa Fe or Approach's legal challenge in Rio Arriba will not automatically allow drilling activities in either place to go forward because of executive intervention in both counties.

Gov. Bill Richardson imposed a six-month moratorium last January on drilling in the Galisteo Basin southeast of Santa Fe. On July 18, he extended that moratorium to Jan. 24, 2009, to allow more time for state agencies to examine the potential local impact of oil operations.

In Rio Arriba, Richardson has not imposed a moratorium, but on July 21 he ordered the Oil Conservation Division to propose new rules for oil and gas activities in the county's eastern zones to protect water resources, human health and the environment where Approach is active, said division spokeswoman Jodi Porter.

"The governor has directed us to draft new rules in the regions around the Chama Watershed because it's more or less a wildcat area without a history of oil operations," Porter said.

Also, on July 18, the division canceled one of four drilling permits previously granted to Approach because further review showed the proposed well would be located in a wetland about 40 feet from surface water sources. The division suspended the other three permits as well and forwarded them on to the Oil Conservation Commission for review.

Curtis Henderson, executive vice president and general counsel for Approach, declined to comment on whether the state's actions will affect the company's litigation against Rio Arriba County, which in April imposed its own four-month moratorium on drilling to draw up a new local ordinance on oil and gas activities.

But Gallagher said the issue of county authority must be resolved despite executive action, especially in Santa Fe, where the county unilaterally declared a year-long moratorium on drilling in the Galisteo Basin independently from state government.

"The thought that a locally elected body can just take your livelihood away is scary, especially when there are tens of millions of dollars in expenses involved in projects," Gallagher said. "The law is very specific that cities and counties can take action to protect their water and waterways, but state statutes don't give them authority to impose moratoriums or regulate oil and gas activities."

Gallagher said a final draft of the Santa Fe litigation is now being prepared, although it's not clear which court the association will approach.

Apart from contesting the county's right to adopt a moratorium, the case will be joined by a local property owner with significant mineral rights to stop the county from "taking" his property rights away. Gallagher declined to name the owner, but said his inclusion greatly strengthens the case.

"I'm not sure any judge would ever rule that someone can take a property right away from someone," Gallagher said.

But county officials insist they have the right to impose rules and regulations to protect local communities from things like noise and air pollution.

"Local governments have authority over many issues that state statutes don't deal with, such as traffic, water contamination or industrial activities in residential areas," said Steve Kopelman, general counsel for the New Mexico Association of Counties. "Local government does have a role to play, and it's a very important one."

The Association of Counties filed an amicus brief in the Approach litigation to show that Rio Arriba and other counties do have authority over many local issues that affect oil and gas operations. The brief said the issue is of "critical importance" to every city and county in the state.

Santa Fe County spokesman Stephen Ulibarri said the amicus brief reflects his county's position in any litigation that might challenge Santa Fe's local authority. He said the county declared its moratorium in the Galisteo Basin to draw up a gross-management plan for the Basin that reflects broad input from local communities and industry experts on the best development plan for that area.

"We're looking at the big picture, not just an ordinance for the oil and gas industry," Ulibarri said.

Oil Conservation Division Director Mark Fesmire said a court ruling on the issue will help clarify state and local authority.

"I think there are some areas where the county can legitimately police oil activities, but where those boundaries lay will be settled when the case comes to court," Fesmire said. "Clearly, I have a different take than the Oil and Gas Association, but the right take is what the court comes up with."

krobinson-avila@bizjournals.com | 348-8302

Milestone for New Mexico Oil Conservation Division

Democracy Santa Fe — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:53:36 +0000

Just this Friday, the OCD revoked a permit that it had granted to Approach Operating LLC to drill in the mountains of Rio Arriba County. This is a definite first for New Mexico! Is that the tide turning that I feel? Make no mistake, it is pressure from citizens that is waking up our "officials" and making them actually begin to think about doing their jobs, not just rubber-stamping industry desires. Let's keep it up.

From the New Mexican:

Wells near Tierra Amarilla ruled too close to wetlands, surface water sources

Phaedra Haywood | The New Mexican
7/18/2008 - 7/19/08
The state Oil Conservation Division on Friday canceled a permit it had approved for an oil and gas well in Rio Arriba County, saying the proposed location was too close to water sources. The OCD also suspended three other permits it had granted to Approach Operating LLC for wells in the Tierra Amarilla area.

The suspended permits and five others Approach had applied for will be reconsidered by the state Oil Conservation Commission, a three-member board that makes rules for OCD and decides on disputed permits.

Rio Arriba County and Tierra Amarilla-area landowners had challenged the permits on the ground the places Approach wanted to drill were ill-considered and too close to creeks, irrigation ditches and drainages.

According to a statement issued by OCD on Friday, the canceled permit was rescinded because the company had indicated the well would be more than 100 feet from groundwater and more than 1,000 feet from the nearest surface water, when the proposed location was "within a wetland and approximately 40 feet from surface water sources."

"The evidence that was given at the hearing about the Woolly well was pretty compelling," said OCD Director Mark Fesmire. "That is not where a well should be sited." Fesmire said he didn't think Approach had deliberately tried to deceive OCD but it may not have had a clear picture of the area's hydrology when it chose the well site. He said there seemed to be enough confusion and questions about the sensitivity of the other three sites for which Approach had been approved to re-examine those permits as well.

Approach Operating voluntarily pulled one of six other permit applications it had pending with OCD, according to the statement. The other five will be considered by the commission along with the three that were suspended Friday at a hearing that will include public comment. No date for the hearing has been set.

Unlike Santa Fe County, where recent proposals to drill for oil and gas caught residents by surprise, people who live in Rio Arriba are familiar with hydrocarbon extraction. About 11,000 wells are active in the county, although until recently, none had been situated in the water-rich mountains near Tierra Amarilla.

DemSF Editorial:
Unlike Mark Fesmire, who I think is more on "our side" than not but who is very diplomatic, I bet that Approach was intentionally deceitful. I imagine that they simply didn't expect to be called on it. That is how their industry is used to interacting with NM state officials. This is the very thing
our ordinance is designed to completely avoid. Outright ban corporations from drilling and you remove a major opportunity for corruption.

Click here to download the complete Ordinance.

Possible interpretation of Richardson's extension of drilling moratorium

Democracy Santa Fe — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:02:29 +0000

Folks in Santa Fe county are surely excited about Richardson's six-month extension of the ban on new drilling in the Galisteo Basin, given that a recent poll of residents showed 45% "strongly opposed" to drilling in the County. While it is certainly a good thing to give more time to those with the pens if they can draft some real protective legislation, I can't help thinking: could there be another motive for the State to extend its ban to sync up nicely with Santa Fe County's own 1-year ban?
A major subtext of the whole drilling fight in Santa Fe has been the question of who has the authority to regulate drilling. The State asserts that it has the authority over pretty much everything that goes on in the state, while the County insists that it has certain powers when it comes to governing what goes on within its borders. It is amazing to me that there can be so many words put into law, yet such a seminal issue such as basic authority is left to haggle over.
Now, there have been rumblings about lawsuits being filed as soon as the State ban ended, though the County ban would still be in effect for six more months. Any lawsuits would basically address the authority issue, since the County has a ban but those interested in drilling do not want to recognize County authority in this case. I like to believe that there would be strong, convincing arguments for County authority. A fight that it thinks it will lose is one that the State is sure to avoid, and a nice way to avoid that fight is to (paradoxically) extend its ban to match that of the County. A black eye for the State in the fight over authority at a time like this, when other NM counties are similarly standing up to industry pressures, may just start the snowball rolling down the hill of Local Control.
This is all just conjecture on my part, knowing the little I've learned about New Mexico government since this whole drilling brouhaha began last fall. It just seems that extending the State ban is a nice tidy way for legislators who may be beholden to oil interests to avoid having to air their allegiances in public. Their preferred course is probably to wait for the next legislative session when they can pass legislation that definitively takes power away from the counties and puts it in their hands. That way, any pesky, protective ordinance that Santa Fe County might pass can easily be struck down without too much revelation as to who is protecting whom at the State level.
We need to be prepared for this attack on local control by our State legislators. They tried it in the last session and they may come down doubly hard in this coming session.

Scott Heath

The wall we're all hitting our heads on:

Democracy Santa Fe — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:47:37 +0000

This from a story written for the Journal North Tuesday, June 24, 2008 about the OCD hearing on complaints of wrongdoing by Approach Resources in Rio Arriba County. (bold added)

"Brooks stressed that, as a regulatory agency, the OCD does not handle complaints of surface owners and that general public comment does not have an impact on agency decisions. The division’s decision will be based on the merits of the factual and technical arguments, he said.
“This is an adjudicatory proceeding and not a policy-making proceeding,” he said."

Galisteo basin mineral rights owner: 'We do care'

Democracy Santa Fe — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:23:37 +0000

Kansas woman who leased 60,000 acres to Tecton touts firm's 'responsible' means of extraction

Phaedra Haywood | The New Mexican
6/17/2008 - 6/13/08
Anne Potter Russ owns 60,000 of the 65,000 acres of mineral rights that Tecton Energy has leased in the Galisteo Basin. She inherited them from her grandfather, George William Potter Sr., who bought them in 1947.

Last fall, when Tecton announced plans to drill for a million barrels of light, sweet crude on the land in south Santa Fe County, area residents reacted swiftly. A public outcry resulted in oil and gas drilling moratoriums at both the state and county levels, and prompted Santa Fe County to start drafting new oil and gas regulations.

Until recently Russ, 48, has been a silent figure in the drama that has area residents predicting the environmental death of the Galisteo Basin and oil and gas developers threatening lawsuits.

Now, the perky, blond mother of two who lives in Kansas, where she edits a magazine about philanthropic events, says she wants her voice heard. "What I'm trying to do is put a face on the name of the Ortiz Grant," she said. "My face should represent the fact that I am not a corporate board. I am a person. And I understand the concerns."

In describing how her grandfather acquired the mineral rights decades ago, Russ said: "It was sort of on a lark. He saw an ad in the paper ... for a sealed bid auction on a parcel of land. He put in the one and only sealed bid and received the mineral and surface rights for the Ortiz Grant."

EDITORIAL:
Is this story supposed to tug at our heart strings? Who spends $1.5M "on a lark"? You? Me? If Russ and her family actually lived in the area that she'd like to have drilled, I might have a little bit more sympathy for her "plight", but the results of the very survey that she commissioned show that there should be no debate: "No Drilling", is what Santa Fe County has said. 9% who strongly favor versus 45% who strongly oppose. No recount necessary.

Entire article here

Tierra Amarilla residents say oil company unfair to them

Democracy Santa Fe — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:43:24 +0000

Group did not put well pad where it had planned, landowner says

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican
6/20/2008 - 6/21/08
Tierra Amarilla landowners protesting proposed wells on their ranches told a state hearing officer in testimony Friday that the oil company, Approach Resources, has not dealt fairly with them concerning the location of well pads and compensation for entering their land.

The landowners and Rio Arriba County are asking the state to cancel four permits it has approved for drilling of exploratory oil wells east of Tierra Amarilla and six pending permit applications because of their potential to harm water and other resources.

The Oil Conservation Division hearing officer, David Brooks, accepted evidence and testimony from the landowners, the county and Approach Resources. He will make a recommendation on the permits to Oil Conservation Division Director Mark Fesmire.

Approach Resources, a Fort Worth, Texas-based company, owns more than 90,000 acres of mineral rights in the area.

The landowners testifying said they weren't opposed to oil and gas drilling, but to Approach Resources' methods. "They were very inconsiderate to the environment, very inconsiderate to the landowners," said John Sena, a retired U.S. Department of Energy officer whose family owns 940 acres of mountains and meadows off U.S. 64. Approach Resources is proposing two wells on the Sena ranch, one in a meadow near natural springs and the other in the path of snowmelt runoff from nearby hills into Tierra Amarilla Creek, Sena said.

Read the whole article here

This seems encouraging, that Rio Arriba County officials are standing up for the rights of their constituents in the face of state authority and overwhelming pressure from the O+G industry. We'll keep an eye on Rio Arriba County.

Land of the Free: Rekindling Democracy in the Age of Corporate Rule

Democracy Santa Fe — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:05:42 +0000

From the Bioneers Radio series...

"If we live in a democracy, why does the clout of big business—corporate rights—inevitably trump human rights? And under our property-rights constitution, nature has no rights. That may be changing, according to environmental attorney Thomas Linzey and his community-based clients Fred and Pat Walls. They challenged the rhinoceros in the room—the rights that allow corporations to effectively nullify elections in rural Pennsylvania and override public priorities nationwide. This next American Revolution is demanding the separation of corporations and state."

Listen to the show on the Bioneers website

Experts stress caution over oil, gas drilling

Democracy Santa Fe — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:36:06 +0000

Phaedra Haywood | The New Mexican
5/20/2008 - 5/21/08
Oil and gas drilling is not all bad, but energy development can have serious negative effects on the environment, economy and public health, according to a panel of experts who spoke Tuesday on the consequences of energy development. Those impacts need to be publicized, studied, and planned for, they said.
"We are not for or against oil and gas development. We are trying to better understand it," said Ben Alexander, associate director of Headwaters Economics, a Bozeman, Mont., group that has spent the past two years studying the economic effects of oil and gas development in the American West.

Alexander told about 150 people who attended the lecture at Unitarian Universalist Church that mineral extraction generates the highest wages in any employment sector and reminded them the industry provides about a quarter of New Mexico's general fund revenue. But, he warned, energy development handled incorrectly can harm the communities where it takes place.

The event was organized by a group of nonprofits including the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.

Alexander said money generated from energy production needs to be reinvested in diverse ways that will continue to provide income after the riches have been removed from the area.

"Pace and scale are so important," he said. "A thoughtful planning process is so important. ... We need to think about how we are spending, saving and reinvesting."

Denver energy attorney Lance Astrella elicited a slight gasp when he said he had "a great deal of respect" for the people in the oil and gas industry. "Like it or not," Astrella said, "fossil fuels are going to be with us for a while."

Read the entire article

Who Will Rule?

Democracy Santa Fe — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:08:50 +0000

"Corporate power lies behind nearly every major problem we face—from stagnant wages and unaffordable health care to overconsumption and global warming. In some cases, it is the cause of the problem; in other cases, corporate power is a barrier to system-wide solutions. This dominance of corporate power is so pervasive, it has come to seem inevitable. We take it so much for granted, we fail to see it. Yet it is preventing solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time."

From the Fall 2007 issue of YES! magazine, an issue dedicated to the issue of people versus corporate power.
Who Will Rule?