New Mexico GOP governor hopeful: Toll roads for oil traffic
HOBBS, N.M. (AP) New Mexico Republican gubernatorial hopeful Steve Pearce is calling for a system of toll roads in southeastern New Mexico to serve booming oilfield and other commercial traffic around one of the most-productive oil and gas areas in the world.
Speaking to a group of business leaders in Carlsbad, New Mexico, last week, Pearce, of Hobbs, unveiled a plan he said would be financed by private companies and without taxpayer dollars, the Hobbs News-Sun reports . Its aim would help traffic coming from the Delaware Basin, an oval-shaped shale rock formation that protrudes from southwest Texas northward into New Mexicos Eddy and Lea counties.
Modern drilling technologies have turned that zone into one of the most-productive oil and gas regions on the planet.
But traffic from heavy oil trucks has damaged New Mexico roads and created dangerous conditions on highways as police contend with an increasing number of automobile fatalities in the area.
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