The El Paso Exploration and Production Corporation of Houston, Texas has successfully beaten the people of Colfax County, New Mexico back into place.
It all began just over two years ago, around the same time the
Valle Vidal battle was fully engaged.
Colfax County buts up against southern Colorado and sits atop the Raton Basin, an extensive deposit of coal and gas that runs from around Springer, New Mexico on the south to Walsenburg, Colorado on the north. The basin is rich in coalbed methane (CBM), a type of natural gas. Over the past decade hundreds, possibly over 1000, new wells have been drilled in the county. The El Paso Corporation is really the only game in town. They hold all the leases on private land in the county and own and operate all the transmission lines. El Paso has been drilling the heck out of Ted Turner's Vermejo Park Ranch (located in Colfax) since the late 1990s. When the fight over the Valle Vidal began, El Paso cawed about their operations on Vermejo Park asking for trust with regards to the proposal to drill the much-loved Valle Vidal.
'Trust us with the Valle Vidal. After all, look how we are doing it on Vermejo Park!' El Paso cried.
Under the banner of "environmental responsible drilling" they patted themselves on the back. El Paso laid out its guidelines for drilling on Vermejo (160-acre well spacing, 'organic' frac'cing fluids, limited trucks, narrow roads and drilling rigs painted juniper green!) as a model. They and their Congressional supporters such as Senator Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) touted the Vermejo Park drilling as the model for the rest of the state and the West! They even began giving media tours of thier Vermejo operations.
(Never once did El Paso mention that it was Ted Turner's army of lawyers who forced El Paso into such strict covenants. Never once did they note that there was never any baseline data or any science to somehow measure and define "environmental responsible drilling". Never once did they even mention the photos coming out of Vermejo's back country showing that El Paso is not following Turner's rules in any case.....)
Well, along comes the Colfax County Commission. Two years ago, under a bucket of complaints from local landowners, the Commission decides it may be high time to regulate this new industry. Lead by Commissioner James Marchetti, an 70+ year old conservative rancher ("Colfax County wants this land and wants this water taken care of...I don't think we should be gambling on that.") the commission hired the local forester, Roger Terry to come up with oil and gas regulations that would make everyone happy.
Mr. Terry made the rounds. He called me. When I told him that El Paso would fight against whatever he came up with no matter what is was, he politely called me an 'environmental extremist' and said that wouldnt happen. When the lawyers at the Western Environmental Law Center offered to help develop a 'lawsuit proof' set of regulations he turned them down. When the experts from the Oil and Gas Accountability Project offered similair help, he brushed them aside.
Mr. Terry looked at the Valle Vidal controversy, listened to El Paso hoot and caw over their "environmentally responsible drilling" on the Vermejo Park Ranch and put two and two together. On Vermejo Park, Mr. Terry said, "El Paso has shown you can do it environmentally friendly and still make a profit." The new Colfax County oil and gas regulations he came up with mirrored the practices on Vermejo.
El Paso had a meltdown. The ordinance addressed issues that included security at a drilling site, visual impacts, noise, wildlife, water, roads and access, waste disposal, weed control, spacing of wells, restoration and reclamation, and drainage and erosion control. It would require a company to obtain a permit from the county before doing any drilling. Apparently, El Paso found these issues to be onerous impediments to its designs on natural gas extraction. Apparently, the work El Paso was doing on Vermejo Park was too good for the rest of the county so they threatened to sue. So much for being a good neighbor.
Late in 2005, and after alot of whining and threatening, El Paso was brought to the table to 'help' Mr. Terry redraft the ordinance. What came out of that was a very watered down version of the original draft. But El Paso didnt like that either and they threatened to sue again. So they regulations got watered down again. But El Paso didnt like those either so they threatened to sue again. Then they organized a bevy of local bruisers to spread the word far and wide that enforcement of any regulations would cost the county millions and wouldnt be worth it. Then they got into playing games, witholding certain information, refusing to participate in discussions and other childish shenanigans. Earlier in the summer when the Colfax County commission was prepared to take final action on the proposed regulations, El Paso's attorney suddenly shows up with a five-page letter to the county outlining still more objections. That led to more work on the ordinance that could have been accomplished a lot earlier in the process and watered down the regs even more. Then, early this month, another El Paso letter showed up, along with letters from the City of Raton and the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, all threatening lawsuits and demanding still more changes to the regs!
Finally, last week when the extraordinarily soggy regulations came before the county commission the County Manager advised against passing the regulations. He said that even if they did pass them he would resubmit them to the new commissioners scheduled to take office in January and get them repealed!! In the end, only stalwart and honest James Marchetti voted for the regulations that that they were. Everyone else seems to have been cow-towed or bought off.
Colfax is kicking aside its responsibility to protects its people, land, water and air. They want to dump that responsibility on the state now that El Paso has beaten them into submission. After destroying a citizen's proposed Surface Owner Protection Bill in the last state legislative session, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association is proposing their own bill. The fox is writing the rules to the henhouse and the the elected officials of Colfax County seem to think thats just OK. Apparently, so does Governor Richardson.
"National rules would be too onerous!" cries the oil and gas industry. Right. What they dont want is a "one size fits all" protective structure for the citizens of this nation. Instead, they demand that state and local governments devise regulations under the ridiculous and insulting assertion that such entities are best suited to regulate industry based on local conditions. What these entities are best suited to do, however, is to be more susceptible to industry pressure - in particular a place like Colfax that is in desperate need of jobs. Of course, El Paso and NMOGA are keenly aware of that fact and they seem to have no problem using threats to impede any local efforts to protect their own resources.
Many within Colfax County seem hell-bent to protect the oil and gas industry at all cost. Despite all evidence to the contrary, many see El Paso's operations as a cash cow, supporting huge numbers of jobs and flushing the local economy with hoards of greenbacks. Then there are the facts. And in fact, those simple facts culled from the New Mexico Department of Labor and Colfax County's own records indicate that drilling accounts for less than one percent of all the jobs in the county and less than five percent of the county's income. I hate to see communities selling thier soul to an industry that doesnt give a God damn about people. Yet we see it again and again.
Essentially, the people of Colfax County are throwing away their land, water, air, health and economic future for....well, nada mucho.
The oil and gas industry and their Republican lackeys are working full bore to turn the communities of the western United States into chattel; company towns beholden to and run by the whim and will of the Boss....and it looks like, in Colfax County, New Mexico at least, they've succeeded. El Paso has smacked 'em down, and you can be sure Colfax will try to get right back up and get a kiss.
Welcome to the New West - it ain't much different from the old one.