American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2015 - 108

ConventionCoverage: Permian Basin Petroleum Association

New Mexico Speaker Don Tripp, R-Socorro, tells PBPA that he hopes a new
Republican majority in the New Mexico
Legislature can make that body as business friendly as the Texas Legislature
has been historically.

Porter hailed the Oct. 9 vote by the
U.S. House of Representatives to lift the
export ban on crude oil as a major step
forward (see story page 32), contending
that crude exports would aid U.S. allies
and create jobs at home.
Speaking in the afternoon, U.S. Congressman K. Michael Conaway, a Republican who represents Texas' 11th District, which includes portions of the Permian Basin around Midland and Odessa,
also hailed House passage of HR 702.
He said the Senate was expected to take
up the export bill shortly after House
passage, but uncertainty remained in midOctober about which direction the upper
chamber would go.
Conaway criticized the Obama administration for retreating as a global
leader in the midst of what likely was a
multigenerational conflict among Muslims
over the heart of Islam.
He also said Iran began violating its
new nuclear accord with Western powers
almost immediately after it was approved,
and that more Iranian-induced instability
was likely to come. "Look at how much
mischief they were creating on the world
stage without it," Conaway said.
However, he added "What I do know
about them is they negotiate better than
our team."

Oil and gas production contributes
$2.1 billion to the state's general fund,
which Tripp said was 35 percent of the
budget, as well as 86 percent of $4.8
billion infused in the state's permanent
trust funds. But those facts historically
have seemed lost on a traditionally Democratic-controlled state legislature, he
said.
The GOP captured the New Mexico
House in 2014 for the first time in 62
years, Tripp recalled. That development
is part of a pro-business shift in state
government that includes the election of
Republican Governor Susana Martinez,
who continues to make pro-business
agency appointments, he said.
"At some point, we hope to become
as business friendly as Texas," Tripp attested.
On assuming majority control in the
House, Republicans had to learn how to
play offense, which included renaming
some committees to more accurately
reflect their missions and reordering the
daily schedule to better accommodate
businessmen and others who would come
to testify, but previously were forced to
sit through hours of floor debate before
being able to testify in committees later
in the day, if the opportunity arose at all,
Tripp said.
The House GOP majority was able to
pass HB 366 to clarify the authority of
the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division in the face of a growing number of

Leading New Mexico
The oil and gas industry continues to
be the dominant contributor to state coffers
in New Mexico, state House Speaker
Don Tripp, R-Socorro, told PBPA.

108 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

local ordinances to curb or prohibit industry activity, he pointed out. Although
the measure failed in the Senate, House
passage was a milestone, Tripp contended,
adding that the lower chamber also was
able to defeat 85 anti-business measures
passed by the Senate.

PBPA At Work
With the Permian Basin accounting
for about half of Texas' 2.6 MMbbl/d oil
output, the PBPA is influential, but its
work is far from done, President Ben
Shepperd told members during lunch.
The association, along with co-plaintiffs
Chaves, Roosevelt, Eddy and Lea counties,
N.M., was successful in influencing U.S.
District Judge Robert Junell in September
to set aside the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's listing of the lesser prairie chicken
as threatened, Shepperd reviewed. But
an appeal of what Shepperd described as
an unprecedented victory, is likely at the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit
in New Orleans, he added.
USFWS is expected to consider soon
whether the monarch butterfly, whose
habitat covers much of the central part
of the country, should be protected under
the Endangered Species Act, Shepperd
said.
PBPA also will work on Environmental
Protection Agency proposals for stricter
power plant emissions. Although a federal
judge has set aside a revised definition
of "waters of the United States," the issue

U.S. Congressman K. Michael Conaway (left), R-Tx., shares the stage with Texas state
Representative Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, during the PBPA annual meeting, Oct. 15 in
Midland. Conaway praised House passage of a bill to repeal the U.S. ban on crude oil
exports, but was critical of President Barack Obama's approach to foreign relations in
the Middle East.

American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2015