FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 18, 2022
Contact: Joaquín Romero
(505) 506-5798
Senator Cliff Pirtle Issues Statement on Federal Lift of Oil and Gas Lease Moratorium
SANTA FE — Over the weekend, the Biden Administration announced a lift on their moratorium of oil and gas leasing on public lands. The move comes roughly ten months after New Mexico Republican legislators called for President Biden to issue an exemption to the federal leasing ban for the State of New Mexico.
Senator Cliff Pirtle (District 32-Chaves, Eddy, and Otero) issued the following statement regarding the sudden reversal of the President’s extraction policy:
“The Biden Administration has so severely destroyed our economy with rapid inflation and skyrocketing gas prices that they have now been forced to do what Republicans have been demanding for the past year. New Mexicans and Americans overwhelmingly support American energy independence. Unfortunately, this course correction is likely too late, as we may not see the cost benefits of new energy production for some time. As such, we know this is nothing more than a desperate, politically motivated move to try and salvage the Democrats’ mid-term elections. The failed policies of Joe Biden and Michelle Lujan Grisham brought us to this point and no amount of spin or pandering can change that fact.”
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(Please see attached June 2021 letter to President Biden, signed by 39 New Mexico Republican legislators.)
