The world feels heavier than it did a month ago.
The current conflict in the Middle East has struck at oil security. Right now, Americans don’t need a lecture to understand the consequences. We already feel it in the cost of living. We feel it at the pump. We feel it in the price of everything that moves by truck – including food, building materials, and other basic goods that common people rely on like aluminum and plastic wrap.
That is why energy security electricity – the cost of natural gas and car gasoline are not an abstract national debate. They are real-world issues. We can argue forever about the conflict, but the immediate risk is simple: global oil flows are fragile, and chokepoints matter. When a chokepoint tightens, markets don’t politely ration the pain. They punish the most exposed places first – often rural places.
So here is my question for New Mexico: in a moment like this, why are we leaving real energy assets on the table?
Outside of Gallup, at Interstate 40 Exit 39 near Jamestown, sits what many locals still call the “Ciniza refinery,” officially known in state and federal records as the Gallup Refinery. It is not a myth or a rumor, it is a real industrial site with a real history, and until recently it had real capacity.
Records describe a crude processing capacity in the 25,000-barrel-per-day range, and SEC reporting a total capacity figure of roughly 26,000 barrels per day when additional feedstocks like natural gas liquids were included.
One refinery cannot magically control gasoline prices, but because capacity is resilience, because capacity means options, prices could be cushioned.
Capacity means having the ability to keep fuel moving across the region when the world gets weird. And the world is weird – especially right now.
The Gallup (Ciniza) refinery is not operating today because it was indefinitely idled in 2020, with official records describing the site as shut down for crude processing, with products no longer stored and process equipment temporarily shut down, while wastewater treatment and remediation continue under permit. The best available documentation does not support the claim that the New Mexico Legislature “forced” the refinery to close. The closure, as described in owner filings and industry reporting, tied to pandemic-era demand collapse and competitiveness decisions.
Now, here’s the other truth: restarting a refinery is not like restarting an old pickup truck.
This site has been idled for years. Tanks were drained. Equipment was cleaned and de-inventoried. Environmental corrective action and monitoring obligations continue. Any serious restart will require engineering integrity work, staffing, logistics, and regulator- approved steps.
So no – I am not saying “flip the switch tomorrow.”
What I am saying is this: New Mexico deserves a documented, public answer.
If this facility is a dead asset, then the public deserves to know why – clearly and in plain language. If it is a restartable asset, then the public deserves a restart-to-compliance plan that puts real numbers on the table: timeline, costs, permitting steps, and decision authority.
Because energy prices may spike, and ordinary New Mexicans don’t get to shrug and write it off as “global conditions.” We unfortunately absorb it. Almost every family has a budget and recent data shows the average family cannot sustain a $400 emergency. New Mexicans deserve cheaper energy prices.
This is also where Cibola County’s broader energy story matters.
We are an energy county. We have a history of uranium, and we are again having serious conversations about what responsible development could look like in the modern era—safe, transparent, and respectful of land and health. I believe energy production can be done responsibly.
I also believe that if New Mexico wants to protect its people, it cannot treat energy as something shameful or pretend that virtue is free when working people are staring down an affordability crisis – or worse, the hunger.
The job of government is not to posture. The job of government is to prepare.
So here is what I want from Santa Fe, and from anyone with influence over New Mexico’s energy future: 1. Publishthefactson the Gallup (Ciniza) refinery – status, ownership, and the real barriers to restart.
2. Ifrestartisfeasible, put a public plan on paper: what it would take, what it would cost, and what must be upgraded to meet modern safety and environmental standards.
3. Ifrestartisnotfeasible, say so plainly – and then pursue other resilience measures that actually matter: fuel storage capacity, supply contracts, and realistic infrastructure planning.
New Mexico can be a state that keeps the lights on – literally and economically. But that requires seriousness. It requires leaders who are willing to protect the environment and protect working families from avoidable shocks.
The world is unstable. We cannot control what happens overseas. But we can control whether New Mexico is prepared – or whether we keep learning, the hard way, that energy security isn’t guaranteed.