Sister Joan Brown: For modern era, update oil and gas laws

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In an opinion piece published in The New Mexican (Santa Fe), Sister Joan Brown, executive director of Interfaith Power & Light- New Mexico and El Paso, called on the state of New Mexico to modernize laws covering the oil and gas industry.  Here an excerpt from the  piece.

For modern era, update oil and gas laws

Many things in the world have changed since 1935 when New Mexico’s laws for oil and gas were written. Since then, New Mexico has grown to be the second-largest oil-producing state, behind only Texas. Oil and gas development has exploded in our state, impacting our environment, climate, public health and front-line communities. But the oil and gas laws of 1935 have not kept pace with the world we live in today.

Businesses are run by people who have families and want to be ethical and moral. Making policy changes in oil and gas rules to include public health, communities, our children and our future would help everyone. How many of us live life as it was 90 years ago?

We all must care for the common good. Updating antiquated rules for the 21st century makes sense. One area is to ensure taxpayers aren’t left to clean up the mess when wells inevitably run dry and need to be plugged. Taxpayers are left to foot the bill to clean up these polluting wells — a burden now and a debt our children must bear.

As part of the 2021 infrastructure bill, Sen. Ben Ray Luján secured a $4.7 billion investment to plug orphan wells. Wells in New Mexico are orphaned when operators go under — often in an inevitable oil bust — and walk away without cleaning up their mess. These abandoned, unplugged wells can lower property value and land productivity, pollute groundwater and release known carcinogens into our air. Too often, states, tribes, the federal government and taxpayers are left to pay to plug wells. Communities are left with polluted lands.

We have never had enough money to plug these orphaned wells, and we now have nearly 2,400 orphan wells in New Mexico, with potentially thousands more that are at risk of becoming orphaned in the near future. The Book of Genesis in the Old Testament instructs us to be caretakers, not polluters or destroyers. Plugging wells is a way to caretake and be responsible.

Read full op-ed

Sister Odile Coirer: Texas could benefit from federal methane rule

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Sister Odile Coirier, our field organizer for El Paso and southern New Mexico, had this letter published in the El Paso Times on Jan. 29, 2023. 

As a Franciscan sister in El Paso, I am concerned about the immigration and refugee issue that floods us each day. I also know that some are coming because of food insecurity, which has climate change as a factor, others may be coming because of increasing storms. Right now, the Environmental Protection Agency is having public hearings and asking for comments on national rules to address methane pollution in the oil and gas fields.

It is a moral imperative to care for our common home and work for the dignity of every human being….We know that Texas doesn’t have strong methane rules and could benefit from federal rules.

Methane pollution is more than 80 times stronger than other sources of greenhouse gases that increase climate change disruption. It is also a source of pollution that causes many health concerns adding to the ozone pollution that we and others in West Texas face. It is a moral imperative to care for our common home and work for the dignity of every human being.

We know that Texas doesn’t have strong methane rules and could benefit from federal rules. We need the EPA to pass national rules to address methane pollution, flaring and venting and quickly. The Methane Supplemental Rule proposal is an important step forward to ensure that approved monitoring technologies and data are available to all so that communities and individuals can participate and engage in the Super Emitter Response Program, which is designed to quickly address very large leaks from the oil and gas industry.

Odile Coirier

East Central El Paso

Joan Brown Op-Ed: EPA should ensure methane protections

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(Here is an opinion piece by Sister Joan Brown, osf, executive director of Interfaith Power & Light, New Mexico and El Paso. The piece was published in the Albuquerque Journal, on Sunday, January 29)

EPA should ensure methane protections

Pollutants cause health problems for people who keep the industry prosperous

BY JOAN BROWN ALBUQUERQUE

I’ve been working with families on the front lines of oil and gas production in the Permian Basin for the last 10 years. I’ve experienced first-hand growing concerns about health, quality of life, and environmental pollution.

Methane and other air pollutants from oil and gas drilling cause health conditions for the same people who keep the industry prosperous. That’s why I and many faith leaders in New Mexico joined hundreds of advocates from across the country in public hearings to urge the Environmental Protection Agency to swiftly finalize new protections that reduce methane pollution from oil and gas operations. There’s still time for the EPA to make changes to the rule and for New Mexicans and Texans to speak up for the strongest possible protections.

People of faith have been part of this fight from the start — we have a spiritual, ethical and moral duty to love and care for our neighbors. Right now, our neighbors are being impacted by methane pollution and climate change-fueled droughts and fires. I’ve met families in Jal who are very concerned. They need to work, but are living in fear for their children’s health and safety. Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, making it a highly potent greenhouse gas. Reducing it would help address climate change by mitigating the natural disasters we’re already facing.

The concerns of a young woman I work with stay with me: “I do not know if I will have the strength to face all of the suffering that will result from climate change in my lifetime.” If we don’t act now, the burdens our youth are already bearing — grief, depression and hopelessness — will only worsen. It’s urgent that we strengthen and finalize these EPA rules to keep our young people safe.

While the EPA’s current proposal goes further than the initial draft, there are still a few key issues to address. Low-producing wells — that cause half of all site-level methane emissions in our country — must be checked regularly for leaks, along with wells with equipment, like storage tanks, that are known to malfunction. Currently, monitoring abandoned wells for leaks is not part of the rule, but if incorporated, would have a big impact on cutting methane. These changes will minimize damage to God’s creation and our communities.

New Mexico set a great example for states by eliminating routine venting and flaring, but those practices continue in Texas. Methane pollution from flares in Texas affects New Mexico, making it clear that state-level action isn’t enough. We need protections from the EPA to ensure that states work together to cut methane because we all share a common home. Our communities deserve to be part of this conversation, which can be done with participation in the Super Emitter Response Program that will monitor and address the industry’s largest leaks using public data.

Cutting methane isn’t optional — it’s a moral and ethical obligation that we have to each other, and we can stand together to let the EPA know that we need strong methane protections by submitting public comments before Feb. 13. Together with the EPA, resolute in our faith, we will address methane pollution and hold the oil and gas industry accountable.