American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015 - 39

about this session is that the association
could help kill those proposals in the
House before they cross over to the Senate."
With Republicans occupying the leadership positions in the House of Representatives and controlling the committee
agendas, Henke says he is optimistic that
bills unfavorable to energy activities are
likely to be tabled or killed quickly.
To support the state's economic
prospects, last year business associations
and economic development organizations
from across New Mexico participated in
discussions on identifying business priorities for the upcoming legislative session,

Henke says. NMOGA and the Independent
Petroleum Association of New Mexico
were among the 25 groups engaged in
the discussions.
In addition to making New Mexico a
right-to-work state, Henke says the coalition will be supporting efforts to revise
the workers' compensation system, create
more public/private partnerships to drive
economic development, repeal the state's
prevailing wage law on public construction
projects, and oppose state or local standards and regulations for the energy and
extractive industries that conflict with or
are more stringent than federal or state
rules.

There are 16 new legislators in the
New Mexico House, Henke says, adding
NMOGA held an educational session for
new legislators in December.
"It gives NMOGA the opportunity to
talk about the industry and its contributions
to the state. The session also covers issues
that the legislators likely will hear from
their constituents, including hydraulic
fracturing and the amount of freshwater
the industry is using," Henke says. "The
association has the opportunity to do that
education in an informal setting, and I
think it was well received by those freshman legislators."
Ì

Texas Associations Monitoring Bills
AUSTIN, TX.-The Texas Independent
Producers & Royalty Owners Association
and the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers report industry representatives are
monitoring several energy-related bills
in the state legislature, which gaveled
into session on Jan. 13.
As of mid-January, several industryrelated bills had been filed, but more are
expected soon, and industry leaders are
wondering how lower oil and gas prices

will affect the state's revenue and budget.
According to TIPRO, the Texas Comptroller's Office has released a 2016-17
biennium revenue estimate of $113 billion,
including $7.5 billion in unspent funds.
It predicts an average oil price of $64.50
a barrel in fiscal 2015 and $69.25 for
fiscal 2016.
This session, a major point of debate
will involve legislation affecting local

ordinances aimed at blocking oil and gas
exploration and production activities,
TIPRO representatives predict. This comes
following a November vote in Denton,
Tx., to ban hydraulic fracturing.
According to the associations, immediately after the Denton vote, the Texas
Land Commissioner filed a lawsuit in
Travis County, Tx., seeking a permanent
injunction to defend the state's mineral
interests. Since then, TIPRO says, Rep-

FEBRUARY 2015 39
American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015

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