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| New Mexico Oil and Gas Association clearly fears the homegrown resistance in New Mexico. Photo credit: https://www.frackoffchaco.org/graphics .  |
The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association clearly fears the homegrown environmental justice movements in New Mexico
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
A leaked transcript from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association reveals that it fears the enormous impact of successful environmental activists in New Mexico -- ranging from those in the otherwise conservative county of Sandoval, to the activists in Santa Fe with their "Don't Frack Chaco" bumper stickers.
"Well you can't go anywhere in New Mexico without tripping over an activist group," said Ryan Flynn, executive director of the New Mexico OIl and Gas Association, at the annual meeting in Santa Fe in 2017.
"Look at Chaco Canyon. I'm sure if you drive around Santa Fe, or walk around, you will see a don't frack Chaco bumper sticker."
"In fact we have more activist organizations per capita in New Mexico, than any other state in the country," Flynn said.
"Our opposition is deeply embedded in local communities."
Flynn said the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association is especially concerned that children as young as middle school want to protect their environment, and protect their land and water.
The leaked transcript reveals how successful the movements against methane and fracking have been in New Mexico by local residents. Movements including 'Leave it in the Ground," and the environmental movements springing from the bedrock of local communities clearly have rattled the Association.
Flynn's address came as Native Americans rose up to protest the widespread pollution from coal mining and coal-burning power plants on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area. For decades, environmental justice campaigns have exposed the widespread cancers from uranium mining and scattered radioactive tailings that remain on both Navajo and Pueblo lands.
Local communities are also fighting new fracking in the Chaco Canyon region -- one of the world's foremost cultural areas -- and fracking in the pristine Chuska Mountains on the Navajo Nation.
Pueblos continue to protest the longtime atomic testing at Los Alamos. In southern New Mexico, the land and water is polluted from missile ranges. New oil and gas drilling is being battled throughout New Mexico.
The environmental justice campaigns are having a tremendous impact.
Flynn said at the meeting, "Their ability to mobilize is something we have to take seriously and combat," He also points out the power of local activists when they contact politicians with e-mail campaigns.
Flynn revealed the cozy relationship of the oil and gas industry with the Governor.
Flynn said he previously served as Secretary of the Environment under the current governor, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Republican.
Flynn said Gov. Martinez can be relied on to pass oil and gas legislation in favor of the oil and gas industry.
At the annual meeting, Flynn said, “Susana Martinez, my former boss, she’s embraced an all-of-the-above approach to energy policy. Probably the most consistent benefit to our industry over the last 7 years is that we don’t have to worry when we walk into each legislative session about a harmful piece of legislation getting signed into law."
Yes, Flynn is the former Secretary of Environment under Martinez.
Read the full written transcript of the leaked audio from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association's annual meeting 2017:http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/DocServer/NMOGA_President_Transcript_2017.pdf?docID=17651
Also at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BqerYOiHj6_EwMRA7a5ChuAAxVLZOEhs/view?usp=sharing
Excerpt:
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.   Halliburton destroying the sacred Chaco region, in Lybrook, New Mexico area, on Jan. 10, 2018 Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News Also see: Sandoval County residents protest oil and gas industry http://krqe.com/2017/10/19/sandoval-county-commissioners-to-take-vote-on-oil-and-gas-ordinance/ |
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