Oil refinery closing causes alarm in Bloomfield

an oil refinery in the four corners announced it will shut down, community leaders come together ...  More »

an oil refinery in the four corners announced it will shut down, community leaders come together to talk about the economic crisis in that area. erisa nakano is live in our farmington bureau with the story. erisa? city and county officials say the economic crisis hit the four corners a little later than most other parts of the country. but no-it's really being felt here. "we want to make sure their sons and daughters have jobs tomorrow." community leaders from san juan, mckinley, and cibola counties met in farmington to address tough economic issues. "in the northwest corner of san juan county, oil and gas plays such an important part in our economy." yesterday--the el paso-based oil company western refining announced it will close down the bloomfield refinery. "the closing of the minute thumbnail 06:14 pm bloomfield refinery came as a total shock to the elected officials and the staff." bloomfield city manager keith johnson says it's hard to see at least 100 people lose their jobs. "one of our goals over the years is to diversify our economy so that we're not solely reliant on our oil and gas industries for our revenues." an overwhelming supply of natural gas has a lot of refineries cutting back on production, which means fewer jobs. "after the first of the year in early 2010, we may start to see it come back up, and that's what we're hoping for, but right now it's a major impact on us and we're struggling a bit up here." san juan county officials say they will continue to adjust their budget to deal with economic crisis. reporting live in farmington... erisa nakano... eyewitness news 4.  « Less