New Mexico may be regretting their decision to vote for Joe Biden after the new administration’s acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega issued a 60-day ban on new oil and gas drilling permits and leases, shortly after the Presidential Inauguration. Citizens of New Mexico overwhelmingly voted for President Joe Biden during the 2020 Presidential Election, helping Biden carry the state by almost 11 percentage points over then-President Donald Trump.
The mayor of Carlsbad, NM, Dale Janway, told the Associated Press, “During his inauguration, President Biden spoke about bringing our nation together. Eliminating drilling on public lands will cost thousands of New Mexicans their jobs and destroy what’s left of our state’s economy. How does that bring us together? Environmental efforts should be fair and well-researched, not knee-jerk mandates that just hurt an already impoverished state.”
In an op-ed, Mayor Janway detailed his concerns: “We call upon all of New Mexico’s elected officials to oppose all proposals that go in the direction of eliminating drilling on public lands. Such an outcome would only punish poorer states such as New Mexico by moving more operations over to states with more privately-owned land, such as Texas. Environmental efforts must always be balanced with consideration of economics and fairness,” he stated.
The Biden Administration’s actions could cost New Mexico’s workers over 60,000 jobs. Additionally, the state funds its educational system, erasing potentially $800 million in funding for its “public schools, first responders, and healthcare services,” according to the official Twitter page of New Mexico Oil & Gas.
President and CEO of New Mexico Oil & Gas, Ryan Flynn, told the Albuquerque Journal that the Biden Administration’s decision was “very much putting politics above science,” adding that, “It’s clear that whoever is advising these approaches isn’t thinking about what the unintended consequences will be for driving production away from the most responsible producer.”
Aside from freezing the energy industry in New Mexico, President Biden also suspended the Keystone Pipeline project shortly after he was sworn in via executive order, killing about 11,000 jobs. It is interesting to note that Biden, who has always claimed to be a champion of the American worker, has seemingly destroyed tens of thousands of jobs during the first few days of his administration, at a time when Americans are hurting the most financially.
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