Latest news with #StateLandOffice
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Juan Sanchez announces public land commissioner candidacy
Former Democratic Party of New Mexico vice chair Juan Sanchez is the first candidate to announce a bid to become the next Commissioner of Public Lands. (Courtesy photo) While Belen resident Juan Sanchez only decided to run in the 2026 Democratic primary for New Mexico Land Commissioner in the last few months, he's been thinking about it for longer, he says. 'I've been traveling the state for the last 10 years, working in natural resources, conservation and public engagement, and some of the things I've realized while doing that is, we are a state that is so rich in our lands and our culture and all the things around us, and it feels like it came to me over the last few months that this is something I think I could do,' Sanchez told Source NM. Sanchez so far is the only candidate for land commissioner in the 2026 election. Voters twice sent current Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard to the State Land Office, and so the state constitution term-limits her from running again. She is instead seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, the Los Alamos Daily Post reports. A former natural resource specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and consultant for the New Mexico Acequia Commission, Sanchez also is a former vice chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, and worked as political director for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who endorsed his candidacy. 'I'm a 13th-generation New Mexican,' Sanchez said. 'I learned to start caring for the land at a very young age, from my grandfather, who was a rancher, and just like his father and his father before them, all on the same piece of property in northern Socorro County. I'm really proud of the experience I've accumulated, and the people I've met because I learned so much from our elders, and want to continue a legacy of managing land in New Mexico for generations to come.' The following interview has been edited for clarity and concision. Source NM: Can you talk about equitable access to state lands? What does that mean to you, and why is it a priority for your campaign? Juan Sanchez: We live in a place where the State Land Office manages over 9 million acres of public lands, and the other 13 million acres of mineral rights as well. But of those 9 million acres, there's 1 million of them that are landlocked and are not accessible to the public. As someone who takes a lot of pride in accessibility to the outdoors and making sure folks in communities around the state can go and enjoy those areas, it's something I plan to make a priority. We live in a beautiful place to go out, explore and learn about the land and our culture. But also, there's opportunities with the outdoor economy, as well: teaching our young students and our young children in our schools about these lands and creating equitable access, and being able to open up these lands to all these different folks is definitely a priority. Your campaign website talks about ensuring rural and Indigenous communities have a voice in land use decisions. What does that mean for people who don't understand what land use is, and how will you ensure it ? That's something I'd like to build on from Land Commissioner [Garcia Richard], who I think has done a great job in creating the Cultural Resources Office. They're going into these communities and finding out what makes them special or sacred. Some of these areas definitely do need some protection. A great example of this is the Caja Del Rio up in Santa Fe County, which the current land commissioner has protected from mineral exploration, oil and gas, as well as large transmission. She was in consultation with tribal communities, with traditional Hispanic communities that have been there for centuries, and learning about how sacred and important that land is to the way of life. Looking at Garcia Richard's time in office, is there anything else you would continue? The Cultural Resources office is absolutely one of those; the other one is the Office of Renewable Energy, she created that, and then it was put into statute a couple years later by the Legislature. The Cultural Resources Office has not been put into statute yet, so the next commissioner can decide whether or not to keep that or no longer have that. With the Office of Renewable Energy, continuing to try to expand and diversify some of the money we make off our state lands is something that will be important to me. It's important to maintain a relationship with the oil and gas industries. They are the revenue that comes from our state lands, predominantly. I appreciate the most recent work that was done this last legislative session, the royalty rate increase; that's something I support. I think it'll be great for New Mexicans and for our public institutions. Is there anything you would do differently? A lot of the work at the Surface Resource Division is something I'd really like to expand upon, make my own and try to find ways to diversify our economy through outdoor recreation and accessibility to lands, whether that be hiking, hunting or fishing. We have communities like our tribal and historical land use Hispanic communities that have been collecting wood in these areas for keeping their homes warm. What does the phrase 'water is life' mean to you, both as a new Mexican and as a candidate for this role? I'm a content creator and I have about 100,000 followers on my social media. Just this morning, I posted about how, when I was on a run yesterday, I was running along one of our acequias, and the water just started coming through for the first time in the year. You could actually watch the water pouring in. Look, I spent about five years as a consultant with the New Mexico Acequia Commission, working with leaders across the state, predominantly in Northern New Mexico, maintaining water access and traditional way of lives. Whenever we talk about our acequias, our water, we're talking about the life blood to our lands and to our life. As the waters start pouring through our acequias, they start to grow in our fields, they start to feed our plants, they start to give water to the animals we end up eating later on. It's a balance. Our communities cannot survive without clean water, and I'm really adamant about the idea of protecting that and protecting the ways of life, learning from our tribal and our historical communities on how they've survived with scarcity of water, and finding ways to continue to protect it, for us and for future generations. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State officials say generation of renewables not enough to replace oil revenue
Apr. 16—New Mexico should've started diversifying its revenue a decade ago. That's according to Stephanie Garcia Richard, the public lands commissioner in New Mexico. Garcia and other officials spoke at a Wednesday discussion on energy in an event hosted by Axios in Santa Fe. "We don't have time on our side for this," Garcia Richard said. Meanwhile, state officials are also waiting to see how a federal administration not fond of renewable energy generation will impact New Mexico, an alternative form of energy the state has been increasingly promoting and trying to generate revenue from. The State Land Office oversees 13 million mineral acres and 9 million surface acres of New Mexico public land. Revenue-wise, Garcia Richard said most state money generated from land leases comes from 2 million acres of state land leased out for oil and gas operations in southeastern New Mexico. Garcia Richard said that needs to change. She's not the only one who thinks so. "While we want to continue producing the high levels, we have got to find a way to diversify," Missi Currier, president and CEO of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said on a separate panel at the event. She pointed out that fossil fuels are a finite resource. "And until our state is able to create a business climate that will attract other businesses here, it will be increasingly difficult to diversify," Currier said. It's already a challenge to lessen the state's dependence on fossil fuels. "I've always said that we're never going to replace money from oil and gas development one to one with any other industry," Garcia Richard said. "We have a resource there that is world-class, and so unfortunately we will not be able to replace those billions of dollars one for one to any other diversification tool. "But we should be looking at all kinds of diversification for our revenue." She pointed out that renewable energy resources in the state have increased nearly sevenfold under her tenure, which started in 2019. She added that roughly 2,800 megawatts of renewable energy are generated on state lands today. The money New Mexico gets from clean energy generation is still nowhere near that of oil and gas. And the politicization of renewable energy is making the market more volatile. Garcia Richard said Inflation Reduction Act funds are hanging in flux under the Trump administration. Melanie Kenderdine, secretary for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, said on another panel her agency in the last year alone brought in $400 million in federal funds. "That's a lot of money for New Mexico," she said. "We don't know what is going to happen in this administration (around) budget reconciliation." Nonetheless, EMNRD is working on what Kenderdine described as an energy analysis of the state, which she hopes can help shape roadmaps around the country and even around parts of the world. "The renewables and the natural gas need to be working together," Kenderdine said.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
25% royalty rate cap on prime oil and gas land heads to the House
Feb. 22—Legislation increasing the maximum royalty rates charged for prime New Mexico oil and gas land is heading to the House after passing the Senate chamber Saturday on a 21-15 vote. A similar effort passed the House last year but couldn't make it through the Senate. This year's bill, Senate Bill 23, takes a slightly different approach by limiting a proposed 25% royalty rate cap geographically to premium land for oil and gas exploration — the Permian Basin. "When you have the best of the best, you want the best rate that you can get," said bill sponsor Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup. "It's a business model." Currently, the State Land Office can only charge up to 20% in royalty rates. The money goes to the state's Land Grant Permanent Fund, which funds public education. Muñoz said 99% of activity in the Permian Basin is driven by major oil companies. "Every major oil company — ExxonMobil, Chevron — has hit oil in this area, and hit it at a high volume," he said. However, that argument did not sway Senate Republicans, who uniformly opposed the legislation. Sen. Larry Scott, R-Hobbs, tried but failed to amend the bill to make the State Land Office subject to the same prime oil and gas development directive that lessees and private landowners must follow, which is to prevent waste and protect correlative rights. Republicans sang a similar tune against the bill as they have so far in the session and in past years, saying it would hurt the industry majorly funding New Mexico. "If you want less of something, you tax it. If you want more or something, you incentivize it," said Sen. Ant Thornton, R-Sandia Park. "And it seems to me we are doing our best to kill the industry that keeps the state running." The State Land Office last year stopped leasing out the best tracts of oil and gas land until the Legislature raises the royalty rate cap. The bill passed the floor after about an hour and a half of debate.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Latest oil and gas royalty rate increase bill makes it through first committee
Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup) introduced the latest oil and gas royalty rate increase bill to lawmakers in the Senate Finance Committee this week. Legislation supported by the State Land Office to increase the royalty rates on New Mexico state lands passed the Senate Conservation Committee this week, the first in its path to the senate floor. Cosponsor Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup) presented Senate Bill 23 to committee members on Thursday. It received a do pass by a 5-3 party line vote and heads next to the Senate Finance Committee next, which Muñoz chairs. The bill proposes increasing the top royalty rate from 20% to 25% for new oil and gas development on the 'best state lands.' The state charges companies royalties for the right to extract oil and gas from public land. According to the legislation's fiscal impact report, the increase in royalty rate is expected to produce between $50 and $75 million of revenue for the land grant permanent fund, which provides funding to New Mexico's public schools, universities and specialty schools. Similar bills proposing increases to the royalty rates have been introduced during previous legislative sessions, but have failed to make it to the governor's desk. New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard voiced her support for the rate increase ahead of the start of the Legislative Session. 'Our friends next door in Texas have recognized that the Permian Basin is the top play for oil and gas in the world and the state's top royalty rate should reflect that,' Garcia Richards said in a statement. 'We can't miss this opportunity to bring in billions more for our public schools and set up future generations of New Mexicans for success.' Trump vows to cut oil and gas rules as New Mexico looks to fight back Republican committee members, all of whom voted against the bill, and attendees opposed to the bill expressed concerns that increasing royalty rates on new oil and gas developments would discourage companies from doing business in New Mexico, particularly smaller businesses. 'For smaller companies who I predominantly represent, they operate on thinner margins. They have less wells. So this kind of raise does disproportionately hurt them,' Jim Winchester, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, said during public comment. 'The bottom line here for my membership and really for the state, is that we're losing independence to the consolidation of the industry. The bigs are certainly getting bigger and small operators are getting squeezed out.' The Legislature last updated royalty rates in the 1970s, which bill supporters said was before the state realized the quality of oil and gas products in New Mexico. They also said the increase would bring New Mexico's rate up to the market rate and on par with what Texas requires. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
