NM Gas Company (NMGC)'s planned Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant is not worth the risk to the health and safety of Rio Rancho, Bernalillo County and surrounding communities. 

Health and safety risks include physical danger from the ignition of leaking gas forming a low-lying vapor cloud that drifts until it hits an ignition source — even simple static electricity — and ignites an inferno. Depending upon wind and topography, such vapor clouds can extend for miles. LNG fires are extremely difficult to control and cannot be extinguished with water. Firefighters require special training and equipment to control the flames. Proposed LNG tanker trucks will also endanger New Mexico drivers and communities throughout the state.

These dangers are not hypothetical. Even if safety procedures and technology are robust, accidents, leaks and explosions at LNG storage facilities and involving LNG tanker trucks have resulted in numerous fatalities, fires, widespread evacuations of communities in the US and around the world, and property damage in the hundreds of millions.

The proposed facility is also not cost effective. The $180M or more that could be charged to ratepayers to build the plant will cost each NMGC customer at least $3 per month and will not reduce exposure to price volatility. The capacity of the plant - less than half the contracted capacity from the current supplier in Texas - means more gas will have to be purchased on the volatile swing market where gas prices fluctuate dramatically.

Now is not the time to build new infrastructure that makes decarbonization more difficult! Read the full text of the petition here.