Rev. Nick King Letter Urges EPA to Ban Flaring, Venting of Methane

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(The Albuquerque Journal printed this letter from Rev. Nicholas King, pastor of Albuquerque Mennonite Church, on Tuesday, January 11, 2022).

As a Christian pastor, I stand with a growing movement of faith leaders who are concerned with issues like air pollution and climate change. It is our duty to stand up for the gift of this Earth that God has bestowed upon us as well as for the welfare of the communities around oil and gas facilities and the workers inside them. 

It is the responsibility of each of us to protect the planet with every small action that affects it. This is why I’m grateful for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent steps to regulate methane and other dangerous emissions from oil and gas facilities across the country.

The venting and flaring of methane at oil and gas facilities is regulated by the EPA, which recently released a proposal that would cut methane and other harmful pollutants from new and existing oil and gas operations. The proposal will also reduce methane waste from leaks at roughly one million oil and gas wells currently operating across the country.  While a great start, these rules must go further to protect frontline communities like mine. 

The EPA must follow in the footsteps of New Mexico and ban this wasteful, routine flaring and venting, because emissions do not know state or national borders, and those of us in the Permian Basin are affected by a lack of regulation from other states. The banning of routine venting and flaring will mean that the health of the workers, who are caught in the middle of trying to make a living while working in polluted circumstances, as well as our national parks and neighborhoods, will be more protected from pollution.

Life is precarious, and nature is, too. In thinking only about economics, we can become so short-sighted that we can end up poisoning our workers, neighbors, and the very air we breathe. That’s one of the many reasons I promote love and concern for all our world and for our children, and why I partner with organizations that protect our public lands, like the National Parks Conservation Association. Together, we work to make sure our national parks and surrounding communities are protected from air pollution and the effects of climate change.

New Mexico’s national parks and heritage sites, like Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Chaco, and Bandelier are the perfect symbol of God’s creation and human history in this world. They are sacred gifts we want to protect from the damages of air pollution and methane flares for generations to come. How we cherish our national parks is indicative of what we believe in and where we are going as a country; uplifting and protecting them sets a standard for the rest of the world to rise up to.  

God’s creation is our inheritance on this Earth, and we must look past our own noses and economic interests to protect our gift of nature. New Mexico has already dedicated itself to preserving our public lands by abolishing methane flares; we must take that dedication further by not only supporting the EPA proposal, but also by pushing the EPA and Congress to continue to make our air, public lands, and conditions for our facility workers safe. In doing so, we glorify God in our care for the creation with which we have all been entrusted.

New Mexicans Testify at EPA Hearing: Donna Detweiler

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EPA Methane Pollution rules hearing statement, November 30, 2021

Good evening, Protectors of the Environment!

I am Donna Detweiler in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Honored to share with you my perspective as a landlord.

My tenants and I use methane (as natural gas) every day to heat water, heat air, heat food. We are grateful for the modest cost of this fuel and would be sad if it were no longer available to us. We are disturbed, however, that some of this precious energy is being wasted in flaring and in leakage from wells and pump or compressor stations. We are also disturbed that methane hurts the health of those directly subjected to breathing it as well as the health of the biosphere that nurtures each of us. We already have methane leaking from thawing permafrost so cannot afford to bleed any more into our common air space without eventually annihilating ourselves. And because NM greenhouse gas emissions have risen 50% under the current administration, we desperately need to get this under control!

So when one of my tenants smells a gas leak, they call NM Gas Company to find the source and then me to get it fixed. I could be tempted to say, “Oh, just open the window.” Or, “If you don’t like living around gas leaks, find another home.” Or “The average leakage of all the apartments together is really quite small and plumbers charge bucubucks for their services.” Tempting as these responses might be, I just fix the leaks. I encourage you to do likewise. I am calling on you to sniff for methane (i.e., step up the monitoring at every stage of its capture and transport) and to make sure the leaks get fixed forthwith, regardless of whether the US Senate passes a methane fee.

I ask your indulgence to take this landlord analogy one last step. I have the responsibility as apt manager to call out tenants who endanger the health or safety of their neighbors. Like if a tenant is running a meth lab, I can go to court for damages, and if they don’t stop the hazardous activity, I can evict them. Now they might offer me chocolates or extra rent under the table to overlook the transgression, but I wouldn’t want to expose myself to the liability of taking it. Not saying that you folks take kickbacks, but the State of NM does in the form of royalties from oil and gas. And I urge you to rule for the welfare of the community as a whole – its air, land, and water – over its methane labs. Thanks so much for taking your responsibilities as landlords seriously!

New Mexicans Testify at EPA Hearing: Odile Coirier, FFM

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EPA Methane Pollution rules hearing statement, November 30, 2021

Hello, my name is Odile Coirier, I am a Catholic Sister, working with Interfaith Power and Light New Mexico-El Paso Region. I live in El Paso Texas.

I strongly approve EPA’s step forward to advance President Biden’s commitment to action on climate change and protect people’s health by proposing comprehensive new protections to sharply reduce pollution from the oil and natural gas industry – including, for the first time, reductions from existing sources nationwide.

However, achieving a robust and protective rule will require EPA to fill gaps on critical issues such as frequent inspections for smaller wells and a ban on routine flaring when it finalizes the rule.

I arrived in El Paso two years ago. This beautiful region is surrounded by Mountains. This is a gorgeous landscape. Yet, the oil and gas sector impact our environment. Flaring is a practice that is rampant in this sector. We can see black smoke, fire liberating toxic products in the atmosphere. The bad smell is unbearable. We all know that the contribution of methane emissions to global warming is 25% higher than previous estimates. Methane is a key precursor gas of the harmful air pollutant, tropospheric ozone.

I am deeply concerned about the health of our communities. The most vulnerable are the ones who suffer the most. Some companies are settled in their backyard.

I am concerned about the environment when unceasing pollution create an unhealthy air, hence the high rate of respiratory illness among the adults and the children.

I am concerned because as people of faith we have a moral imperative to care for our common home and to protect the voiceless.

EPA must strengthen their proposed rule to protect public health and the climate, through a supplemental rulemaking or other action, in order to:

  1. End the wasteful and dangerous practice of routine flaring at oil and gas facilities, as states like Colorado and New Mexico have done already.
  2. Require regular monitoring at all smaller, high-polluting and leak-prone wells, and work to incorporate emission monitoring results generated by community groups and other third parties into its standards.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my comments. On behalf of my community and my organization I urge EPA to set stronger standards, eliminate loopholes for smaller operations, and end venting and flaring from oil and gas facilities.

Finally I urge EPA to finalize this rulemaking as quickly as possible, climate change is an emergency and our planet cannot afford further delay.

Thank you!