Help Stop LNG Export in New Mexico!
New Mexico is a national leader in natural gas production. Liquified natural gas, or LNG for short, is a supercooled form of the fossil fuel that allows it to be more readily stored and transported. New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, three tribal nations, and Baja California recently signed an agreement to increase LNG exports to Asian markets. If approved, this could have far-reaching consequences for state and local energy security, climate goals, and public health.
Grassroots organizations and environmental advocates have criticized attempts to expand LNG storage and export capacity in New Mexico. Just last year, a controversial LNG storage facility was proposed in Rio Rancho, just a mere mile from Petroglyph National Monument, but was ultimately denied by the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission.
Recent analyses from the Department of Energy, released in December 2024, found that increased LNG export to new markets could reduce domestic supply, raising energy costs for New Mexico consumers. Production, storage and transportation of LNG could further increase carbon pollution in communities that have long borne the brunt of decades of environmental injustices.
Please take a minute to sign this petition and show your support for heeding concerns outlined by the Department of Energy's LNG export analyses.
To the Department of Energy:
As New Mexicans, we care deeply about protecting the health and wellbeing of our communities. As one of the largest producers of natural gas in the country, New Mexico has become a focal point in ongoing attempts to expand liquified natural gas (LNG) exports to new markets, particularly to Asia.
I offer my support for the Department's recent analyses on the negative consequences of LNG export expansion and encourage the future administration to take seriously the economic, environmental, and social concerns raised by these findings.
Recently, New Mexico joined other states, tribal nations, and Baja California in favor of LNG export expansion. This comes after the Biden administration ordered the 2024 pause on LNG exports in order to better understand the true impacts of increasing LNG exports.
The analyses, finalized in December 2024, outline the wide-ranging impacts of LNG expansion, including the significant threats to energy security, environmental justice, and carbon emissions.
According to these findings, increasing LNG exports will exacerbate the current oversupply of the fossil fuel that far outpaces global demand. The Department's analysis links increasing LNG exports to lower domestic supply and higher electricity costs, which would affect all New Mexicans, from average ratepayers to farmers and business owners to heavy industry.
For generations, New Mexico communities, particularly in the San Juan and Permian basins, have been sacrificed to supply the country's demand for oil, gas, and other resources. Expanding LNG exports would require additional storage and transport facilities in New Mexico to be brought on line, raising serious concerns for environmental justice and public health. As the Department's report points out, oil and gas production creates pollution such as methane, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and others, which have all been linked to increased mortality rates in nearby communities. All New Mexicans deserve to breathe clean air, no matter where they live.
Lastly, LNG export expansion would further set New Mexico and the country as a whole back from our ambitious climate pollution reduction targets. In every scenario, the Department's analysis linked any increase in LNG export expansion with raising overall greenhouse gas emissions. In this era of climate emergency, any increase to carbon emissions is unacceptable.
I urge the Department of Energy to take meaningful steps to ensure that these findings are considered when making decisions about the future of LNG exports.
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Sincerely,
[Your name here]
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