New Mexico faces a seminal moment in its relationship with the oil and gas industry as President Donald Trump vows to slash federal regulation, enforcement and funding. That leaves the state to grapple with a fraught and expensive question: Will New Mexico pick up the slack in policing an industry that generates more than a third of the state budget, but also more than a third of its climate-warming pollution?
In addition, the state’s current 60-day legislative session may well mark the final time legislators will debate these weighty issues during Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s final term as governor. Next year’s one-month session is devoted to the state budget, and later that year, voters will elect a new governor.
