(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).

I’m Ruth Striegel, from Albuquerque, NM, where I serve on the board of directors of New Mexico and El Paso Region Interfaith Power and Light. I’m also the chair of the Green Justice team at my church, First Congregational UCC. I appreciate the work that the EPA and each of you are doing to craft a strong methane supplemental rule proposal. Given the harm that methane emissions are doing to our planet, it’s absolutely imperative that we stop these emissions as soon and completely as humanly possible. My faith teaches me that it’s my privilege and obligation to work for a better world, and that world includes species beyond homo sapiens.  Our human and non-human brothers and sisters are suffering as a result of methane pollution, and these methane rules are key to putting a stop to the damage.

Last spring and summer were very difficult for me and for our state. The spring was terribly windy, warm and dry. With a lack of moisture in the soil and such unrelenting winds, two prescribed burns in NE NM got out of control and quickly combined into the worst wildfire we’ve ever experienced. The weather conditions created the perfect mix to incinerate a magical, rural area with a rich traditional culture. The total lack of precipitation in April, May, and early June was followed by ten days of heavy rains. The land had been sealed shut by the intense fires and couldn’t absorb moisture, resulting in damaging floods. It will be generations before this land can be restored, and the people there, whose lives are so interwoven with their mountains and grasslands, may never be able to fully restore their culture.

These fires and floods are the harvest we are reaping from our indifference to climate change. This is playing out all over the world in different forms. Methane emissions are playing a huge role in warming the planet. And they are wasteful and unnecessary!

My faith teaches me that it’s my privilege and obligation to work for a better world, and that world includes species beyond homo sapiens.  Our human and non-human brothers and sisters are suffering as a result of methane pollution, and these methane rules are key to putting a stop to the

In early June of last year, I visited the Permian Basin of southeast NM with a group of people from Interfaith Power and Light. In this incredibly productive oil basin, we were surrounded by oil infrastructure. Driving through the oil fields, we became nauseous or got headaches because we were breathing in the methane and other gases that were leaking out of the various kinds of equipment. Despite state regulations forbidding it, we saw flaring everywhere we went. We met with people who lived with cancer and respiratory diseases, who yearned for a better life, who lived with the fear that disease or accident would take their loved ones, but who lacked the financial resources to find a better life elsewhere.

Small, low-producing, and abandoned wells in southeast New Mexico are yielding almost no oil, but at the same time are emitting huge amounts of methane. I am very glad to see that the updated draft rule closes a loophole in LDAR standards, requiring routine monitoring of low-producing wells for leaks. I’m also glad to see monitoring of abandoned wells until closure.

I urge you to go further, ensuring that operators capture gas at oil wells and limit flaring to the maximum extent, making emission standards for storage tanks applicable to more tanks, and providing a clear pathway for communities and individuals to participate and engage in the Super Emitter Response Program by ensuring that approved monitoring technologies and data are accessible to all.

Thank you very much.