Oil Patch workers protest climate bill

ROSWELL, N.M. (KRQE-KBIM) - The message to Washington from New Mexico oil-and-gas workers is simple: Put a lid on climate-change legislation.

More than 100 people gathered in Roswell Thursday for a rally held by energy companies.

Oil and gas is big business in southeast New Mexico. Those who make a living off it said they have a lot to lose when it comes to federal cap-and-trade legislation.

Cap-and-trade, which proponents say would control pollution and greenhouse gases, would set a cap on total emissions. Under such a plan industries that pollute above limits would have to buy credits from industries that pollute less.

So a group called Energy Citizens is on a nationwide blitz holding rallies including the one in Roswell and another set for Friday in Farmington.

The public relations campaign, backed by American Petroleum Institute, is calling on New Mexico's senators to vote no on cap-and-trade legislation already passed in the House.

"No one believes the bill that passed the House of Representatives will change the weather, but it will change the change in your pocket books," George Yates of Yates Petroleum told the crowd.

Opponents said the added cost of the permits would be passed down to the consumer.

"This bill puts too much emphasis on renewable energies or energies that are not yet matured yet," Gerges Scott, an Albuquerque public relations consultant, told KRQE News 13.

A spokesperson for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said renewable energies like solar and wind will create jobs through innovation.

Bingaman's office said jobs building, installing and maintaining the new green equipment are the future.

One man at the Roswell rally said his opposition to cap-and-trade is less about energy and more about the reach of the law.

"I think the federal government is moving in directions that is not in sync with the Constitution," Doug Anderson said.

Energy Citizens will hold rallies in 19 states hoping to get the message out by the fall when the senate takes up the cap-and-trade debate.