American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2015 - 148

ConventionCoverage: Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico
IPANM Advocacy
Foster also reported on a variety of
legal, legislative and regulatory issues
IPANM was working. She mentioned
that despite Judge Browning's ruling
against the Mora County ordinance, which
the county has since rescinded, officials
there are talking about adopting a slightly
less restrictive ordinance similar to one
in Santa Fe County, which Foster advised
still would be harmful to the industry.
She said industry advocates were unsuccessful in passing HB 366 during the
2015 New Mexico Legislature, which
would have clarified the NMOCC's authority as the state's exclusive regulatory
agency. However, Foster opined, passage
in the House was positive, and passage
in a future session could be aided by
adding a "commercial reasonableness"
provision similar to that contained in
successful Texas legislation.
Foster said the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service was moving ahead with species
reviews. On June 30, the agency announced status reviews on four species
in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and
Oklahoma, including the Rio Grande
cooter turtle found in the Rio Grande
River watershed of Texas and the Pecos
River of southeastern New Mexico.
Additional rain is boosting the lesser
prairie chicken population, she remarked,
adding the bird would benefit from the
New Mexico Game and Fish Commission's denial in May of Ted Turner's request to renew a permit to breed and
hold endangered Mexican gray wolfs on
his Ladder Ranch for reintroduction into
the wild.
Opponents of the planned releases included New Mexico Land Commissioner
Aubrey Dunn, Foster said, who testified
that 20,000 acres of the 156,000-acre
ranch were state trust lands, and releasing
the wolf would affect grazing leases. Releasing the wolf into lesser prairie chicken
habitat would have only negative consequences for the bird, Foster added.
States are lining up to contest the Environmental Protection Agency's and
Army Corps of Engineers' final definition-released in June-of waters and wetlands subject to the Clean Water Act,
and Foster said ambiguity remained over
exactly what were "waters of the United
States."
Enforcing the updated rule, which is
being challenged by 27 states, will require
the agencies to hire a bevy of consultants
to perform in-depth reviews for permit

applications on operations that might
affect a WOTUS, she speculated. "It
comes down to the EPA and Army Corps
being job creators," Foster remarked.
On clean air issues, Foster said IPANM
received good news in March, when the
New Mexico Court of Appeals affirmed
a lower court ruling that dismissed
Sanders-Reed v. Martinez. In that case,
she recounted, a teenage girl, her parents,
and the Wild Earth Guardians invoked
the public trust doctrine to sue Governor

Martinez, claiming the state's atmosphere
had to be held in trust for future generations, thereby imposing on the state a
duty to implement a greenhouse gas reduction program.
Foster said the Court of Appeals effectively ruled that the parties had to
raise arguments about protecting the atmosphere through procedures prescribed
by the New Mexico Air Quality Control
Act, and not try to circumvent the process
through the courts.
❒

Oil & Gas Industry Proponents
Strike Back At Its Detractors
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-The Independent Petroleum Association of New
Mexico's annual convention spotlighted
the efforts of several organizations and
individuals striving to advance oil and
gas as well as refute industry opponents,
whom speakers insisted had deeper agendas of control and misinformation.
Despite opposition from anti-oil-andgas activists, IPANM will continue its
efforts to shape regulations and public
policy initiatives, said incoming President
Mitch Krakauskas, and count on support
from state officers who applauded the industry's contributions to state government.
"Regulation is going to come, so it's a
matter of us getting something we can
work with," said Krakauskas, senior land-

148 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Oilmen must hold journalists accountable
for blindly repeating untruths spread by
the industry's opponents, rather than
searching for the truth, filmmaker and investigative journalist Phelim McAleer tells
the Independent Petroleum Association
of New Mexico's annual meeting, Aug. 57 in Albuquerque.

man at Strata Production Co. in Roswell,
N.M. "Hopefully, we can keep working
with our state officials, and keep people
in office who will help us move forward."
Phelim McAleer, a filmmaker and investigative journalist from Northern Ireland,
who produced the film, Fracknation: A
Journalist's Search for the Fracking Truth,
encouraged IPANM to hold journalists accountable for inaccurate reporting and disseminating lies from industry detractors.
"Our job is not to report what someone
tells us," said McAleer, who was the
keynote speaker at IPANM's Aug. 5-7
meeting in Albuquerque. "Our job is to
listen to what they say and then check it
out."
McAleer spoke about how his own
search for the truth led him to question
the litany of what often proved to be
misinformation from industry detractors.
A former reporter for the Financial Times,
The Economist and the UK Sunday Times,
McAleer accused the media of frequently
acting as stenographers instead of journalistic investigators.
He insisted that reporters should instead
ask for scientific evidence of claims that
the oil and gas industry was ruining the
planet.
"I don't care about the oil and gas
business," McAleer reminded his audience.
"It's not my job to care about you. But
truth is important."
McAleer urged oilmen to take their
message to students, but to be smart
about it by, for example, hosting a movie
event and showing both his film and the
anti-industry documentary Gasland.
Language And Ideology
Mark Mathis, founder of WestWave
Films in Albuquerque, struck a similar

American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2015

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