LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: Haaland's rhetoric collides with NM's windfall
The Bureau of Land Management just held the largest oil and gas lease sale in its history. Seventy-four parcels totaling 33,530 acres across New Mexico and Texas sold for more than $4 billion in bonus bids and rentals. New Mexico鈥檚 share? Roughly $2 billion straight into state coffers for classrooms, early childhood programs, roads and public services. That鈥檚 not pocket change. That鈥檚 real money from real energy production keeping lights on, kids learning and families working.
This wasn鈥檛 some lucky break. It鈥檚 the direct result of American energy workers doing what they do best: producing the oil and gas our country actually needs. Leasing is step one. Permits to drill will follow, and then the rigs will go up. Every barrel helps lower prices at the pump, strengthens our national security and funds the very state government that too many politicians love to demonize.
Enter Deb Haaland, the former Interior secretary now the New Mexico Democratic gubernatorial candidate.
In 2019, she told The Guardian she was 鈥渨holeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands.鈥� In 2021, on the Senate floor, she doubled down: keep fossil fuels 鈥渋n the ground,鈥� vote against all new fossil fuel infrastructure. Those are her own words, on the record, when she had the power to act on them.
Now she wants to run the state that just banked $2 billion from the very industry she spent years trying to shut down.
New Mexico鈥檚 budget relies on oil and gas revenue. Schools, hospitals, police and roads all depend on it. Energy workers aren鈥檛 just creating history, they鈥檙e paying the bills. If Haaland actually believes her own rhetoric, she should stand up right now and pledge that not one single dollar from this lease sale, or any future oil and gas revenue, will touch her budget. Zero. Not for schools. Not for roads. Not for anything. Put it in writing, because we know you only like to speak to the eco-choir. Show us you鈥檙e not just another anti-fossil-fuel hypocrite who talks green in front of the cameras and cashes the royalty checks behind closed doors.
Because that鈥檚 exactly what they do. They rail against drilling, then quietly spend the severance taxes, the royalties and the lease bonuses like it鈥檚 free money from heaven instead of the hard work of roughnecks, truckers and engineers who actually show up every day.
This record-breaking BLM lease sale is going to collide head-on with the historic failure of a Haaland governorship if she wins. New Mexico鈥檚 energy workers are going to keep producing. They鈥檙e going to keep funding the state. And Haaland will keep talking out of one side of her mouth while spending the proceeds out of the other just like every other green politician who pretends fossil fuels are the enemy until the check clears.
The rigs are turning. The money is flowing. And the American energy renaissance isn鈥檛 asking permission.
It鈥檚 happening. New Mexico鈥檚 workers are making sure of it.
Larry Behrens is an energy expert and the communications director for Power The Future. He is also author of the book 鈥淧ower Restored: President Trump鈥檚 First Year and the Revival of American Energy Leadership.鈥� Find him on X/Twitter @larrybehrens.
