Biden's federal oil-drilling reforms — one quick thought

Increasing the royalty payment, per High Country News' list of all that President Biden's proposed reforms include, sounds good.

But?

At the state level, it gets Western states with lots of drilling on BLM or Forest Service land even more addicted to oil money. That's especially if they're relatively low-population and also relatively poor.

Looking at you right in the eyeballs, New Mexico and fake green governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Note that between federal, state and private land, New Mexico oil drilling has almost doubled in the past five years. It has passed North Dakota into No. 2 on state oil production. (Most the recent explosion in shale drilling in the Permian Basin is on the NM half of the Delaware Basin.)