Testimony on State Methane Rules: Kayley Shoup

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Members and supporters of New Mexico Interfaith Power & Light have prepared testimony  for hearings held by the  Environmental Improvement Board. The hearings, held the week of Sept. 20-24, are in support of the The New Mexico Environment Department’s  (NMED) strong proposal to cut ozone-forming volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and methane released by the oil and gas industry. The first comment is from Kayley Shoup, an organizer for NM-IPL affiliate Citizens Caring for the Future.

Hello my name is Kayley Shoup and I am an organizer with Citizens Caring for the Future in Carlsbad, and today I will be sharing why as a frontline community member in the Permian I strongly support the proposed methane and ozone rules. For years I believed, like many in my community still do, that regulatory agencies were doing their best to protect frontline communities like mine. As everyday I was learning of more young people being diagnosed with cancer, I continued to believe that we were being protected, that the pollution couldn’t be that bad, and that maybe I was just someone that was trying to find a reason as to why I was surrounded by so much tragedy.

Over the past year I have learned that all of those beliefs were false. Those of us in frontline communities actually aren’t being protected. I now know that the state does not have one air monitor that tracks methane or VOC pollution in the Permian Basin. I now know after being out in the field that the pollution is that bad and it is constant, and I also understand that two years ago I wasn’t just a girl trying to find meaning in seeing her loved ones ravaged by cancer but a girl that was starting to realize the danger that surrounded her.

Because of the abysmal lack of enforcement in the Permian we must have stronger rules such as those being proposed today. Rules that require things like frequent inspections, especially at sites near schools and neighborhoods. Rules that can be realistically enforced, such as I believe these rules can be. They are currently our only line of defense against methane and VOC pollution. I’m not sure how the Governor or NMED plans to slash methane pollution that they aren’t properly monitoring, but I do believe these rules are a start. As a community member in the region of the state that contributes the most to the New Mexico State Budget, I believe the least the state can do is implement the proposed rules. When we prioritize the needs of the communities most affected by methane and VOC pollution first and foremost. When we work to prioritize the health and lives of those human beings in frontline communities. When we value doing what is right and not just politically simple. We set off a ripple that becomes a wave, and THAT wave makes real and meaningful change. Thank you for your time.

“Climate change is touching into every aspect of life’

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An article in The New Mexico Political Report on July 26 examines the impact of climate change on communities and families of color. Sister Joan Brown is quoted in the article.

Here are excerpts:

“According to a Yale Project on Climate Change and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication report, communities of color are likely to disproportionately feel climate change more than white communities due to socioeconomic inequities. Communities of color are likely to be more vulnerable to heat waves, extreme weather events, environmental degradation and the resulting job opportunity dislocations, the report said.

Brown said she believes the first aspect of climate change to have the greatest impact on families of color in New Mexico will be the intensity of forest fires in the state.”

This week forest fire smoke from western states has affected skies and air pollution in the eastern part of the U.S. and the Bootleg Fire in Oregon is so intense it is causing its own weather.

“I think we’ve already seen some of that with fires that have drastically changed some of the areas where people live. Vegetation that won’t come back affects the watershed, affects irrigation, animals that live here. What we’ll see with exceptional drought, we see right now,” she said.

Families of color who live in Albuquerque are also feeling the effects of climate change and the ensuing severe drought, Brown said. Her organization has been involved in tree plantings, as part of the City of Albuquerque’s initiative to plant thousands of trees in city neighborhoods. Brown said New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light has focused its efforts in the International District in Albuquerque because the area acts as a “heat sink” due to a lack of vegetation and too much concrete, she said.

Heat sinks, which occur in urban settings, are more likely to affect low income and diverse communities such as the International District, Brown said.

“As it gets hotter, heat sinks will affect mental and emotional health. You get really depressed if there’s no shade, no beauty or coolness. It really impacts children and their well being. Trees are really important to children for that green and that beauty,” she said.

Read full article

Kayley Shoup’s Testimony at EPA Hearing

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Kayley Shoup is an organizer for Citizens Caring for the Future, an affiliate of New Mexico Interfaith Power & Light in Carlsbad.  Here is her testimony at the EPA hearing on June 15-16, in which the agency is collecting testimony to develop a proposed rule to reduce methane and other harmful pollutants from new and existing sources in the oil and natural gas industry.

I don’t need to tell all of you what climate goals stricter methane rules and stronger enforcement will help us achieve. You know why we must cut methane emissions…These rules could mean that a mother doesn’t have to watch her child go through leukemia. They could mean that a young  man doesn’t lose his hardworking father at a young age. They could mean that a grandmother can breathe easy into her old age. They could mean that a young couples dream of a family isn’t dashed by reproductive issues.

Just last week I was out in the oil fields of the Permian with Earthworks looking for emission events. It was upwards of 105 degrees every single day. Prior heat records were being broken. It was something else to quite literally be feeling the effects of climate change, while also seeing through a FLIR video camera the emissions that are significantly contributing to that climate change. It was memorable to say the least.

As I drove home from the oil fields each night last week, I thought about how scared I was that my community is breathing the emissions I had just seen into our lungs every single day. I thought about how so few people in my tiny hometown realize what danger our health is in. The risks are not communicated by industry or the agencies that are supposed to protect us. I thought about the oilfield workers who are directly exposed to this pollution every single day, and how their lives may be upended by disease in the future. I thought about how many emissions events I had seen in just one day, and then I would shudder remembering that there is only one air monitor in my town, and that there are no air inspectors in New Mexico that live in the Permian. I thought about how cancer runs in my family, and how the pollution I’m exposed to may assure that I die young. I thought about my 51 year old mother who has just finished treatment for ovarian cancer, and how terrified I am that pollution could contribute to the recurrence of her cancer. I thought about how everyday I am learning that my community is a sacrifice zone.

I naively thought that I was being protected by federal and state environmental agencies. I blindly trusted my government and I blindly trusted industry, but sometimes the truth slaps you in the face and wakes you up. I am involved today because living in a frontline community has woken me up to the fact that some communities, some families, some human beings really are seen as disposable. I’ve seen firsthand a culture that values the state of the economy more than a child’s life. I realized something was wrong when I pieced together that I knew more young people with rare and aggressive cancers than the total number of people my eighty year old grandmother has known throughout her life that had cancer. Since beginning. This is reality for young people on the front lines. Whether or not they realize that the devastation they face in their life could very well be attributed to pollution caused by emissions does not change the fact that the devastation exists.

I don’t need to tell all of you what climate goals stricter methane rules and stronger enforcement will help us achieve. You know why we must cut methane emissions. I don’t need to explain why we need to diversify our economy, or how cutting methane provides job creation. I do need to remind you of this though. These rules are more than just rules. These rules could mean that a mother doesn’t have to watch her child go through leukemia. They could mean that a young  man doesn’t lose his hardworking father at a young age. They could mean that a grandmother can breathe easy into her old age. They could mean that a young couples dream of a family isn’t dashed by reproductive issues.

Frontline communities suffer the most when common sense action isn’t taken, but because of climate change everyone in the world is essentially living in a sacrifice zone in one way or another. Whether their community is constantly threatened by natural disaster or riddled with disease. Methane emissions affect us all. I hope the EPA chooses to take bold and swift action to make methane rules that sustain life.