Oil and gas drilling is not all bad, but energy development can have serious negative effects on the environment, economy and public health, according to a panel of experts who spoke Tuesday on the consequences of energy development. Those impacts need to be publicized, studied, and planned for, they said.

"We are not for or against oil and gas development. We are trying to better understand it," said Ben Alexander, associate director of Headwaters Economics, a Bozeman, Mont., group that has spent the past two years studying the economic effects of oil and gas development in the American West.

Alexander told about 150 people who attended the lecture at Unitarian Universalist Church that mineral extraction generates the highest wages in any employment sector and reminded them the industry provides about a quarter of New Mexico's general fund revenue. But, he warned, energy development handled incorrectly can harm the communities where it takes place.

The event was organized by a group of nonprofits including the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.

Alexander said money generated from energy production needs to be reinvested in diverse ways that will continue to provide income after the riches have been removed from the area.

"Pace and scale are so important," he said. "A thoughtful planning process is so important. ... We need to think about how we are spending, saving and reinvesting."

Denver energy attorney Lance Astrella elicited a slight gasp when he said he had "a great deal of respect" for the people in the oil and gas industry. "Like it or not," Astrella said, "fossil fuels are going to be with us for a while."

Astrella said several dominant themes have emerged in his work on energy cases. One he characterized as an "excess use of property," where negligent oil and gas drilling practices cause a loss of value for people who own surface and water rights.

Astrella also said "volatile organic compounds" contained in the gases that escape from pipe lines, holding tanks or transport trucks cause real health problems the industry dismisses as "perceived."

"Why is there a question about whether it causes health effects?" he said. "Because there has been a failure of government. The federal government has not done the studies to determine whether there is a health link between drilling fluids and people's long-term, low-level exposure to them."

Astrella said it is imperative that baseline studies of air and water quality be done before extraction activities begin. "And it's very important they be done by you and not the drilling companies," he said.

Astrella said new technologies exist to help reduce the impacts of oil and gas drilling, but energy companies won't pay for them, and inventors won't invent better ones unless they become required.

"Why is it important to do it right?" he asked. "Obviously, for the public. Some of the serious illnesses take years to develop, and if you wait, ... it's going to be too late for them. "No amount of money will compensate them for the loss of a child or a cancer they may have."

One of the few people who has done research on the health effects of the energy boom in the West is Theo Colborn, a professor at the University of Florida and president of a group called The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, based in Paonia, Colo.

Colborn said her group studied 224 chemicals found in products used in drilling in New Mexico. About 97 percent of them contained chemicals with serious health effects, according to Colborn. And about 47 percent of those contained "endocrine disrupters" that cause irreversible changes in organisms before they are born.

The panelists stressed the importance of baseline studies, a demand for full disclosure of the ingredients in proprietary drilling fluids and pooling resources to develop regional plans for dealing with impacts. "The way to do it is to let people know the importance of it," Astrella said. "It's like herding cats, but it can be done."

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.


Santa Fe County residents and lawmakers were caught off guard when Houston-based Tecton Energy announced plans to drill for oil in the Galisteo Basin late last summer.

In response to public outcry over the potential impacts on health and water, Santa Fe County initially passed a three-month moratorium on oil and gas drilling and began writing new regulations to govern oil and gas drilling in the county.

In January, Gov. Bill Richardson issued a six-month drilling ban in the basin. He ordered the Department of Energy Minerals and Natural Resources, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the State Engineer, the Indian Affairs Department, the Department of Game and Fish, and the Secretary of State's Office to study the issue in the interim.

In February, the county passed a yearlong moratorium on county drilling permits, which can be extended another six months. The county has also hired an expert land-use attorney and a planning group to help write regulations concerning oil and gas extraction.

The governor's ban ends June 24, when the state reports are due.

Energy Minerals and Natural Resources spokeswoman Jodi Porter said the Oil Conservation Division, which issues state drilling permits, will likely review the reports before making a decision on three drilling-permit applications Tecton submitted in December.

The permits are often issued in as little as two days, but because of public interest in this case, Porter said, public hearings will be conducted on the pending permits before they are approved or denied.