Understanding Oil and Gas Resistance in Northern New Mexico

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Abstract

In May 2013, Mora County, New Mexico became the first county in the United States to ban hydraulic fracturing when it adopted an ordinance enacting a moratorium on all oil and gas extraction within its borders. The oil and gas industries have generated up to 1/3 of New Mexico’s economic revenue since the 1970s (Robinson-Avila 2014), providing goods and services alongside potentially hazardous environmental conditions. Oil and gas advocates argue that the low population density of Mora County is ideal, as few individuals would be impacted by industrial development, yet this highly rural county was still able to come together to reject resource development. The initial success of this ban is of particular interest not only because of the county’s rurality, but also due to its work with a non-local advocacy group, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Mora County citizens needed to gain access to the legal-political field in order to make legitimate claims about their land use, so they brought in the CELDF, a Pennsylvania-based non-profit environmental justice organization, who ran local democracy schools and helped the county draft and pass the legislation. In this paper, I begin to examine the context of Mora County’s initial success in banning hydraulic fracturing by looking at both the role of external political influences and Mora County’s unique history and civic culture. Examining these interlocking components sheds light on an unlikely success story of environmental resistance.

Author

• Rose Elizabeth Rohrer, University of New Mexico