Real soon you will be hearing from the oil and gas boys that they pay lots of taxes and provide a lot of jobs. Yes they do. A new U.S. Energy Administration report says that NM is the third largest net producer of energy for the country. The production of oil and gas has increased for sure. Oil is the king right now.
But don't buy into the ads you will see soon on how oil and gas taxes pay for everything in New Mexico. Lumped in with that will be royalties which are actually a payment to the State Land Office and BLM for the publicly owned oil and gas that the producers extract. They would like to fool you into thinking they are taxes. They most assuredly are not. They are paying for a product but want you to think it is something else.
And increased activity in the oil patch, while good in a short term, does little to advance the economic fortunes of our poor state. This is a must read article on that issue. The Governor continues to show a lack of planning to grow us past the boom bust cycles of natural resource extraction. And she continues to get away with it. The problem, unlike Texas, is a real lack of diversification in manufacturing. We have an economy that has oil and gas and government spending keeping it depressed in the long run.
But don't buy into the ads you will see soon on how oil and gas taxes pay for everything in New Mexico. Lumped in with that will be royalties which are actually a payment to the State Land Office and BLM for the publicly owned oil and gas that the producers extract. They would like to fool you into thinking they are taxes. They most assuredly are not. They are paying for a product but want you to think it is something else.
4 comments:
That's a mind opening article. It mentions that the longer the oil and gas boom lasts the worse the consequences, lowering per capita income $7,000 in the long run. And in the study it refers to, it says "...the percent of adults with a college education decreases the longer the county stays specialized on oil and gas. The magnitude of this relationship is severe..."
This is bad news for the local economy, good news for states where the people who do get an education here have to go to find good jobs.
It also says that defenders of oil and gas say that this time things will be different, the boom will last forever because of ever increasing worldwide demand for energy.
This is so ridiculous it makes you cry. Capitalism has boom-bust cycles built into it. That's what it does. Millions of articles and books point this out.
And as if Russia and China and everybody else won't eventually figure out how to do fracking. The Mexican president just yesterday sign a huge oil industry reform bill that will open up Mexico to US companies, that will go in there and frack the hell out of Mexico. They are already predicting the glut here will get worse. And when oil and gas prices go down, the first thing those oil companies do it turn off the wells, and everyone is out of a job.
The way the city is treating the Han family is just shameful. KOB had a story about how the city will not settle with the family even after Gary King said our police department was horrible. I still do not understand why all of these people including Darren White and Rob Perry were there.
I know this is off topic Jim, but maybe you could update us all on this..one of the worst black eyes in the city's history.
Even Pope Francis sees the need to protect the environment. According the NY Times, Pope "Francis called attention to victims of natural disasters, especially Philippine typhoon victims, while renewing his call to protect the environment, which he said was “frequently exploited by human greed and rapacity.”
YES!
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