“America’s political divide,” NBC News laments, “has been growing.”
Increasingly, a Pew Research Center survey revealed, “Republicans and Democrats view not just the opposing party but also the people in that party in a negative light.”
The “divides between factions of Americans,” Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero warns, is “a troubling problem that we should all be striving to address.”
But deep in the heart of the Southwest, an unplanned experiment in harmonious congruity spans both partisan and ideological dissention. It is hydrocarbon production in the Permian Basin, and it is nothing short of amazing.
Sprawling across New Mexico and Texas, there’s a geological wonder that covers 75,000 square miles. Earlier this year, the Midland Reporter-Telegram marked the 100th anniversary of Santa Rita No. 1, a gusher that “transformed not only the rural area around it but the entire Permian Basin, proving there was commercial quantities of oil and creating an oil and gas sector that today leads not only the nation but the world.”
Hyperbole? Nope. In June, energy journalist Robert Rapier reported that the Permian “has reached an all-time high of 5.8 million [barrels per day], out-producing even Saudi Arabia’s massive Ghawar oilfield.” As for natural gas, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) documented that the basin’s gross withdrawals “set an annual record high in 2022 at 21.0 billion cubic feet per day … 14% above the 2021 average.”
EIA data also show that the “two states the Permian Basin spans … contributed the most growth to U.S. crude oil production in 2022.” And “for the third consecutive year, crude oil production grew more in New Mexico than in any other U.S. state.”
Wait, what? Democrats comprise the entirety of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, as well as the Land of Enchantment’s statewide elected officials. In the legislature, donkeys outnumber elephants nearly two to one. Abortion, state government brags, is “is legal and accessible in New Mexico,” recreational marijuana is permitted, and the death penalty is banned. How can such a place be a petroleum powerhouse?
The answer’s simple: money. In January, the London-based Financial Times journeyed to southeast New Mexico, and discovered that “joblessness is plunging, wages are soaring and new tax receipts are flowing to state coffers.” The legislature’s number-crunchers computed that “[g]eneral fund recurring revenues for FY23 through February were $7.74 billion, up $1.7 billion, or 28.2 percent, from the same period a year ago.” Conservation funding, “free” college tuition, subsidies for broadband and rural healthcare — the governor is at risk of writer’s cramp from signing bills to amplify Big Government in her state. (In fact, the money’s coming in so fast, Santa Fe couldn’t find ways to spend every penny. So lawmakers approved “rebates for New Mexico taxpayers, as well as economic relief payments to … residents who are not required to file taxes.”)
Texas taxes neither personal nor corporate income. It’s a right-to-work state. In 2020, 232 of its 254 counties went with Donald Trump. All of its statewide elected officials are Republicans. And its Permian windfall is just as impressive. Bloomberg recently dubbed Midland “the country’s pay-raise capital,” due to “employers across all industries fac[ing] an unprecedented hiring challenge.” (Several months ago, Lorie K. Logan, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, visited the Permian’s “energy, business and community leaders.” After all, “promoting the economic resilience and mobility of low- and moderate-income communities is a top priority for the Fed.”) Midland ranked fourth in the Associated General Contractors of America’s analysis of percentage gain in construction-job growth between May 2022 and May 2023, while nearby Odessa ranked sixth. For overall employment expansion, the Permian’s twin cities lead the nation, according to a tabulation conducted last month by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of the America’s 389 metro regions, Midland (8.3 percent) and Odessa (6.7 percent) saw their nonfarm payroll jobs blossom the most between June 2022 and June 2023. Austin’s enjoying an almost-immeasurable budget surplus, and this summer, the governor signed a bill to enact “the largest property tax cut in Texas history.”
Liberal, stagnant, welfare-dependent New Mexico. Conservative, booming, swaggering Texas.
The Permian Basin’s bonanza remains widely overlooked by coastal, big-shot pols, economists, and opinion “leaders.” Elites are free to ignore the phenomenon all they want, but that doesn’t make it any less real. In the Permian Basin, Blue America and Red America have, literally, found common ground — above an ocean of oil and natural gas that will generate jobs and wealth for decades to come.
Big government red and big government blue both love the color green.
You couldn't beat me or threaten me into living in either of those states ever again.
Democrats comprise the entirety of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, as well as the Land of Enchantment’s statewide elected officials. In the legislature, donkeys outnumber elephants nearly two to one. Abortion, state government brags, is “is legal and accessible in New Mexico,” recreational marijuana is permitted, and the death penalty is banned. How can such a place be a petroleum powerhouse?
It's all a part of the GREAT Democrat Lie!! New Mexico is only solvent because of it's money from Oil & NG! Period! So, our Communist Governor (the fat little Chihuahua) is pretending to be a Biden Liberal while steamrolling production through the Oil and Natural Gas Industry! While the corrupt Interior Secretary (Deb Haaland) is shutting down oil and gas opportunities in Chaco Canyon and other areas of NM, the Gov is grasping for the Oil & Gas money to fund her Marxist Socialist Communist Agenda. Putin does the same thing in Russia!! New Mexico is somewhat rich, but it is not going to go to the New Mexican people for their potential prosperity, it's going to the Elitists that run the show!!