New Mexico has spent the past decade adopting stricter methane and greenhouse gas regulations for the state’s booming oil and gas sector but a bill before Congress could upend the state's progress, according to one state energy advocate.

The Protect Domestic Oil and Gas Small Business Act, backed by two Republican lawmakers, would exempt low-producing, marginal wells from federal oversight. Supporters contended small, independent energy producers should not be burdened by federal methane requirements approved in 2024.

Lucas Herndon, energy policy director for the advocacy group ProgressNow New Mexico, said wells owned by small operators often pollute the most.

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“In New Mexico, those are actually the ones that we find leaking more, venting more; they are often older wells, potentially producing as much, if not more, greenhouse gases overall,” Herndon explained.

According to an analysis by the renewable energy nonprofit RMI, low-producing oil and gas wells account for three-quarters of total emissions nationwide, while extracting less than 630 gallons a day — enough to fill just eight bathtubs.

In 2022, New Mexico enacted rules to reduce venting and flaring across the oil and gas supply chain. Last year, the governor announced the new regulations had slashed methane emissions by approximately half compared with Texas, which lacks comprehensive state-level restrictions.

New Mexico’s regulations also require oil and gas operators to use cleaner air-driven equipment, conduct regular leak detection and repair, and develop gas capture infrastructure.

Herndon argued states’ authority should not be preempted.

“New Mexico has done the work to really try and hold the oil and gas industry accountable,” he said. “We have been successful some years and less successful other years, and this federal bill certainly compromises a lot of that success.”

After Texas, New Mexico is the second-largest producer of oil in the U.S. Some of the taxes and royalties from oil and gas production are being used to move the state away from its dependence on the boom-and-bust industry by leasing land for utility-scale solar and wind projects and building a green-energy workforce.