Can Federal Efforts Help Build Economic Resilience in New Mexico’s Oil and Gas Communities? Daniel Raimi and Zach Whitlock Report 23-11 August 2023 Can Federal Efforts Help Build Economic Resilience in New Mexico’s Oil and Gas Communities? A About the Authors Daniel Raimi is a fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and a lecturer at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He works on a range of energy policy issues with a focus on tools to enable an equitable energy transition. He has published in academic journals including Science, Science Advances, Environmental Science and Technology, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Energy Research and Social Science, and Energy Policy and in popular outlets including The New Republic, Newsweek, Slate, and Fortune. He has presented his research for policymakers, industry, and other stakeholders around the United States and internationally, including before the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee of the US House’s Natural Resources Committee. In 2017, he published The Fracking Debate (Columbia University Press), a book that combines stories from his travels to dozens of oil- and gas-producing regions with a detailed examination of key policy issues. Zach Whitlock is a research analyst at RFF. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020 with a B.S.E. in Materials Science and Engineering and a B.A. in Earth Science. He then earned his MPhil in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge, where his dissertation focused on tracking trends in the climate change discourse of environmental lobbying organizations. Before Cambridge, his research interests lay at the intersection of materials engineering and environmental stewardship. Prior to joining RFF, he covered recent developments in voluntary ESG and climate initiatives for Longview Global Advisors. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the staff of Senator Martin Heinrich, in particular Anaïs Borja and Edward Tabet-Gubero, who provided logistical support and contacts for this work. Thank you to Chelcie Henry-Robertson of Environmental Defense Fund, Briana Lyssy of BakerHughes, Monika Ehrman of Southern Methodist University, and Andrew Curley of the University of Arizona for participating in stakeholder meetings in New Mexico. Above all, we are grateful for the time and expertise shared with us by the dozens of stakeholders who allowed us to interview them for this research. We hope that this work, and future research, supports their efforts to build economic resilience in their communities. A full list of meeting participants can be found in Appendix A of this report. Funding for this analysis was provided by Environmental Defense Fund and by Resources for the Future’s Equity in the Energy Transition initiative. Resources for the Future i About RFF Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy. The views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may differ from those of other RFF experts, its officers, or its directors. Sharing Our Work Our work is available for sharing and adaptation under an AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. You can copy and redistribute our material in any medium or format; you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made, and you may not apply additional restrictions. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Can Federal Efforts Help Build Economic Resilience in New Mexico’s Oil and Gas Communities? ii Abstract Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are projected to reduce demand for oil and natural gas, creating economic risks for the hundreds of communities and hundreds of thousands of workers who depend on those industries. Howe