Some political allegations are flying around against New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham who’s accused of perhaps doing some armtwisting to convince a state board to reverse its stance about the use of oil and gas wastewater.
A report by Capital and Main raised the claim that the governor “pressured members of the state Water Quality Control Commission to consider a petition reversing a rule the commission passed unanimously in May.” The approval in May had banned waste water from being used outside oilfield work and testing.
What raised questions was the August meeting of the four department secretaries on the panel. It was the first time in years they all attended then proceeded to overturn the rule passed a few months earlier.
Capital and Main headlined its story, “New Mexico Governor Puts Finger on Scale in Oilfield Wastewater Vote,” and suggested the governor “appears to push commission to overturn its recent ruling barring the use of produced water outside the oilfield.”
Gov. Grisham, in a statement to SourceNM, only stated she had “encouraged relevant cabinet secretaries to bring their expertise” to the proceedings. One member of the commission, James Kenney, who is also the state’s Environment Department secretary declared “The governor did not explicitly ask us to all show up.”
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