New Mexico gets it

[dan_s]

NEW MEXICO

NM lawmakers wrestle with a budget bonanza . Albuquerque Journal .
Three years ago, New Mexico lawmakers were scrounging for dollars to patch a gaping budget hole. But things have changed quickly, and the state is now swimming in revenue – an estimated $7.8 billion in the current budget year – that’s derived mostly from an oil drilling boom in the state’s southeast corner. The windfall has already allowed lawmakers to increase teacher salaries, restore depleted state cash reserves, expand a high-profile film incentive program and earmark nearly $400 million for highway construction and repairs around New Mexico.

Oil surge reshapes life in New Mexico . Albuquerque Journal .
The population of Carlsbad exploded over the last seven years as new drilling technologies unlocked oil and gas buried in the Permian Basin, largely south of town. Oil production is still accelerating. Production hit 29 million barrels in a recent month, or twice the total recorded that month just two years earlier. Carlsbad has ballooned to nearly triple its normal size since 2012. Roughly 75,000 people now live in the city, though the proliferation of RV parks and dormitory-style man camps makes estimating difficult. Immigrants are an important part of the new workforce.

Activists are wrong: Fracking in NM helps lower carbon emissions far more than solar, wind . Carlsbad Current-Argus .
Opinion. New Mexico is a testament to the economic power of horizontal drilling, or fracking. Advances in this revolutionary technology have allowed companies to develop oil and gas resources that were previously not economically viable in the state. As a result, New Mexico is one of the country’s leading producers of natural gas and oil. But on the heels of what is nothing short of an energy-producing renaissance that has resulted in huge tax benefits for New Mexico citizens, a small but growing number of anti-fracking activists in several states are seeking to limit fracking in favor of solar and wind power.
--------------------------------
BTW there is nothing "Green" about wind and solar because their large footprint on the surface destroys large areas of natural habitat.