Methane Comments: Patricia Sheely

(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.