Solving a major climate challenge

Dear Friend,

Today, I was proud to welcome $43.7 million in the first phase of funding available to New Mexico from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to create jobs cleaning up orphan oil and gas wells across the state. These abandoned oil wells are an enormous source of methane pollution, a greenhouse gas that is 86 times more potent than CO2. With this new funding we’re putting our traditional energy workers to work solving a major climate challenge.

Along with my colleague Senator Ben Ray Luján, I have been calling for this type of effort to reclaim orphan wells for years. I worked hard to secure the total of $4.7 billion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will help our country create a new federal program to identify and clean up orphan wells—idle and decaying oil and gas wells for which the operator is unknown or insolvent and that are creating deeply hazardous climate emissions.

This is just one way that the landmark Infrastructure Law will put New Mexicans to work restoring the health of our land and water. I led the effort to establish the first-ever abandoned hardrock mine reclamation program. The new law will also allocate billions of dollars in new funding to help us mitigate the growing risks of extreme wildfires.

As we continue to implement the Infrastructure Law, I will stay focused on maximizing all of the new investments in our state so we can put New Mexicans to work building climate resilience into our landscapes, modernizing our transportation, energy, and internet infrastructure, and setting a strong foundation for New Mexico’s long-term economic competitiveness.

Sincerely,

MARTIN HEINRICH
United States Senator