Methane Comments: Cynthia González

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(The EPA is hosting three virtual public hearings on January 10-12. These hearings are an important opportunity for communities across the country to make their voices heard, and demand that EPA adopts strong, comprehensive methane safeguards to protect our health and our planet. We share ccomments from New Mexico and El Paso residents).

Hello, my name is Cynthia González. I live in El Paso, Texas, a city on the US-Mexico border. I work for the St. Columban Mission for Justice Peace and Ecology, a Catholic nonprofit organization and I’m serve on the board for Interfaith Power and Light-New Mexico and El Paso región. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with today on why strong federal methane rules are important to me, my community and the communities I work with. Through my work with impacted communities and as a border resident myself, I have witnessed firsthand how harmful methane pollution from the oil and gas industry is to our health, our safety, the livelihoods of entire communities and the overall destruction that it causes to in the biodiversity of our planet. 

In my community and nearby communities in west Texas and New Mexico hundreds of families are being impacted by the activities of the oil and gas industry. With many of them already seeing severe impacts on their health. This rule is an important step to ensure we protect them and protect the future of young people. In a recent visit to a community in South New Mexico, I was able to meet with a group women and mothers who are deeply alarmed by the lack of sufficient monitoring and regulation of the industry.

Through my work with impacted communities and as a border resident myself, I have witnessed firsthand how harmful methane pollution from the oil and gas industry is to our health, our safety, the livelihoods of entire communities and the overall destruction that it causes to in the biodiversity of our planet. 

During a presentation and after hearing from the group on the health impacts that they are seeing, one of the woman asked in Spanish with clear worry and disbelief in her tone, “I just don’t understand if they (meaning leaders, politicians, government) know that this is happening and if harming us, why don’t they do anything to stop it, doesn’t our health matter, don’t we matter”. These words should show us all the desperate need to protect these highly vulnerable communities. 

I trust that through this rule the EPA can begin to grant these families and impacted communities the protections they deserve. 

I’m particularly grateful to the EPA for taking steps to address methane pollution from the oil and gas industry – including by ensuring regular inspections occur at all sites and maintaining strong requirements to use zero-emitting technologies. The EPA and all of society must do everything we can to ensure that we are addressing impacts of climate change and protect the health and safety of communities like mine and those in Texas and New Mexico. These rules are an important step in that direction.

Thank you for your time. 

Methane Comments: Tom Smith

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(The EPA is hosting three virtual public hearings on January 10-12. These hearings are an important opportunity for communities across the country to make their voices heard, and demand that EPA adopts strong, comprehensive methane safeguards to protect our health and our planet. We share ccomments from New Mexico and El Paso residents).

My name is Tom Smith, a member of the Franciscan community and director of the Holy Cross Retreat Center in Mesilla Park  We have a Laudato Si! Committee here to promote care for the earth both locally and around the world, as well to care for the people most affected by environmental concerns.  As a faith leader, I look to St. Francis of Assisi, the patron of ecology, and to Pope Francis who has fervently called for action to care for all aspects of the earth and the people who live here.

I lived in Artesia for a while and heard and smelled the flaring of the methane and gas close to where I lived.  Many people live close to such noxious and dangerous fumes but are too poor to move elsewhere so they feel the effects most personally.

New Mexico receives much income from the gas and oil industry in the Permian Basin, but the state also needs to be conscientious about the environmental impact of the industry and work for effective regulations.

I lived in Artesia for a while and heard and smelled the flaring of the methane and gas close to where I lived.  Many people live close to such noxious and dangerous fumes but are too poor to move elsewhere so they feel the effects most personally.
You all know more about the details of what needs to be done, so I will just ask as a faith leader that you consider the importance of regulating methane and other emissions to keep all people safe and our earth more enduring as a safe place to live.

Methane Comments: Patricia Sheely

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(The EPA is hosting three virtual public hearings on January 10-12. These hearings are an important opportunity for communities across the country to make their voices heard, and demand that EPA adopts strong, comprehensive methane safeguards to protect our health and our planet. We share ccomments from New Mexico and El Paso residents).

My name is Patricia Sheely. I grew up in Ohio and have spent the last 30 years in Gallup, NM, at the edge of the Navajo reservation. I am a retired dietitian. My faith background is United Methodist. These days I follow an interfaith path. I would like to thank you for allowing me to speak. I believe that we need strong regulation of methane emissions. This must be done at the federal level rather than state by state. While New Mexico has strong methane rules other states do not and methane knows no boundaries.

I have two overriding concerns. The first is the health of the people living near oil and gas fields, especially children and women of childbearing age. The second is the climate crisis.

Breathing methane causes asthma and heart disease. Our highest priority should be on the health of our infants and children as they represent our future.

The people who live in the Permian Basin in southeast New Mexico and in the San Juan Basin in the northeast corner are already in danger of poor health. Our native population and low-income families are the most effected and they are suffering. They do not have the resources to move. Nor should they be forced to leave their sacred homelands. Breathing methane causes asthma and heart disease. Our highest priority should be on the health of our infants and children as they represent our future. Besides affecting a person’s quality of life, health problems raise the cost of health care for all of us.

The climate crisis is an existential crisis. I never thought I would live to see and experience the changes that are taking place in our weather patterns. Our climate is changing faster and in ways that scientists have been unable to predict. This has resulted in an unprecedented loss of biodiversity that is only going to increase. People are not able to live in their homelands due to sea level rise and extremely hot temperatures. This puts stress on migration. Crops can’t be grown for lack of water and high temperatures resulting in less food production. Agricultural and construction workers cannot tolerate the high temperatures. More pandemics are predicted. The climate crisis is affecting all aspects of our lives and it spares no one, especially the sick and the poor.

I want to ask you to think outside of the box and consider possibilities that are beyond business as usual. For too long the policies of the United States have been driven by economics, jobs, and the cost to the corporations and their profits. We must now make the health of children and the environment our priority. I agree with the philosophy of Native peoples. All decisions should be made by considering how this decision will affect the seventh generation. This prevents the problems that arise from short-sighted thinking. We must think long term as we act quickly in the short term.

The universe has moved forward over billions of years by exploring new opportunities for advancement. We as people and society can do the same. The universe is asking us to do just that. I fear that if humanity is not willing to act in this way, the Earth will evolve forward without us. My goal today was to speak for our children, the entire earth community of plants, animals and humanity, and the environment that supports us. I ask that the EPA move quickly on methane rules that address venting, flaring, and low producing wells.

Thank you.