Well, they tried.
Mora County, northeast of Santa Fe on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, has a population of only 5,000. It became the first county in the US to ban drilling and fracking back in April of 2013, and upheld the ban in a hearing last October. Quietly, the county commission repealed the ordinance after a court ruling overturning it. What happened? Big Oil showed up.
SWEPI, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, sued the county, and Western Energy Alliance filed an amicus brief. Their argument was that counties cannot pass laws contrary to state law, and New Mexico state law already allows oil drilling and fracking. And they're right - to give you an idea of priorities, the state parks division is part of the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resouces Department.
And the judge agreed.
The current county commissioner, George Trujillo, is worried that appealing the ruling will cost the county more than they have in attorney's fees.
The land under the county has oil reserves, but the people valued their water supply more.
...in sparsely populated Mora County, where 67% of the 5,000 residents are Spanish-speaking, people cherish their culture and way of life.
Sandra Alcon said her neighbors don't care about mineral rights or oil money. They are angry about the way energy companies' "land men" treated them. Residents here are seen as easy marks for hustlers offering little compensation for oil and water rights, she said.
"They know we have a lot of elderly and rural people; some don't speak English," she said. "They don't know that some of us went to college and some of us have the Internet.
"I may look stupid, but I'm not. I know what they are doing."
This was an easy victory for Big Oil; they can outbid a few thousand farmers with the money they have in the petty cash fund. They're expert litigators, they can tie opponents up in court until their resources are exhausted.
There's still a little legal wiggle room, Mora County can still pass regulations on aspects of oil exploration and drilling not already regulated by the state, such as road noise, runoff, etc., but they'd just be whittling around the edges. The residents of Mora County may not be able to stop Big Oil, but like Sandra Alcon said, they definitely know what they're doing.
One advantage of being retired and fulltiming is that for the past five years I have been able to travel the country and see places like Mora County. I shopped and did laundry in a nearby town while staying in the area, and noticed all the "no fracking" signs in people's yards.
In the laundromat I met a woman vet, now on some service-connected disability that I didn't inquire too closely into. I screwed up and put soap into the machine her clothes were in, but she was really nice about it and we got to talking. Her dream of joining the service to get an education didn't pan out, and now she's just hanging around. Sometimes you just can't get ahead, it's depressing.