On the recordDecember 17, 2015
I thank Senator Heitkamp for her leadership on this issue. I thank the Presiding Officer for his contributions to allow us to reach what has been an incredible example of a bipartisan, balanced energy package, something we haven't seen for quite a while. I wish to recognize the many hours that Senator Heitkamp spent in meetings of every complexion under the sun, educating our colleagues who don't have oil- and gas-producing basins, as we do, on the intricacies of what does this mean for price pressures, what does this mean for consumers, are the things that you intuitively might think actually not what you would see in the actual marketplace. There was meeting after meeting with the renewable energy associations, in the solar field, in the wind field, and with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. There were people such as the Presiding Officer or the energy committee chairperson, Senator Murkowski of Alaska. I thank the Senator for that work, and it has really been a pleasure to work with her in that effort. This is a very big step for New Mexico. Obviously, at any time when oil is trading under $50 a barrel in a State where we have two big basins--the Permian Basin in the Southeast and the San Juan Basin in the Northwest, not to mention production in the Raton Basin that is coming on--it is a very big hit, not only to our job situation and to the families who rely on those jobs, but also to our public schools in the State of New Mexico.…
