NMIPL IN THE NEWS

Sister Odile Coirier of El Paso Testifies at EPA Hearing

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“…after visiting the Permian Basin a few weeks ago and seeing methane pollution from a special camera, I cannot stop thinking that methane pollution and air pollution do not have boundaries. The Permian Basin is a methane hotspot.”

My name is Odile Coirier. I am a catholic sister, member of the Institute of the Franciscan Missionary of Mary. I am also a member of Interfaith Power and light in New Mexico. I live in El Paso, Texas, and have visited the Permian Basin where there are a number of Catholic parishes in the diocese.

As a member of a faith based group, I believe that every human being has the right to live in a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment and also has the duty to protect the environment. We have created a disruptive climate, we are depleting the natural resources, This wonderful planet has become in some part a wasteland. Our work is inspired by the powerful document of Pope Francis on care for our common home that is God’s creation. The time is now to address the ecological problems for us and the next generations to come.  Pope Francis said:  (and I quote)

“Climate change is a global problem with grave implications… some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for the poor and causes millions of premature deaths…there is also pollution that affects everyone caused by transport and industrial fumes .. Human beings are creatures of this world enjoying a right to life and happiness and endowed with unique dignity. So we cannot fail to consider the effects on people’s lives of environmental deterioration, current models of development and the throwaway culture“. (end of quotation)

Living in the Southwest for some years, it is very troubling to experience the disruption of climate leading to frequent heat waves, the bad smell early in the morning while we go for a walk. Our area is polluted by smog that affects  daily the health of people and mostly the most vulnerable. It is well known that the air in El Paso is not actually safe as reported by the American Lung Association and affects particularly children, seniors and individuals with respiratory conditions, who are the most sensitive to smog pollution.

There are many sources for our pollution including industrial facilities like the Western Refining , the Newman Power Station and Capitan Compressor Station. But after visiting the Permian Basin a few weeks ago and seeing methane pollution from a special camera, I cannot stop thinking that methane pollution and air pollution do not have boundaries. The Permian Basin is a methane hotspot.

As a Franciscan sister, I am very concerned about all brothers and sisters and God’s creation. A number of our Catholic parishes are in the Permian Basin so they have very direct pollution and climate change is affecting us all.

Texas is the largest producer of oil and gas in the U.S., producing over 30 percent of U.S. domestic production.  Consequently, this means that a significant portion of methane pollution is coming from Texas, oil and gas development.

More regulations are needed to ensure that industries take seriously their moral responsibility to act with integrity and accountability. They need to retrofit equipment to capture methane and there need to be enforceable rules with oversight.

Action must be taken now to strengthen oil and gas rules. Strong federal safeguards are essential for protecting the health and safety of our communities as well as to combat climate change. The EPA’s first plan to regulate pollution under Obama administration should be reinforced and strengthened to address more efficiently the harmful greenhouse gas emissions that continue to affect our communities.

I speak for those who are living in this region because I am deeply concerned. Life is precious, our environment is precious. “We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors; we borrow it from our Children”. Thank you!

Rev. Nick King’s Testimony at EPA Hearing

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I ask you, the EPA, to take your responsibility seriously in setting reasonable and responsible standards in regards to Methane emissions, so that God and history and the rest of the planet will see that we are at least trying to do the right thing.

Rev. Nick King  is one of the faith leaders involved with Citizens Caring for the Future, an affiliate of New Mexico Interfaith Power & Light in Carlsbad. Here is his 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.

My name is Nick King and I am pastor at the Carlsbad Mennonite Church, Carlsbad, NM in the heart of the Permian Basin. This earth, our home, is a gift of God to us to take care of, and I hope our lives and actions will be an honor to our Creator.  I ask you, the EPA, to take your responsibility seriously in setting reasonable and responsible standards in regards to Methane emissions, so that God and history and the rest of the planet will see that we are at least trying to do the right thing.  In our national attempt to be world leaders, our taking control of climate change is much more important than even the size of our nuclear arsenal, which is another related shameful heresy.  All of us around the world are children of God, and what destroys one, destroys us all, as we see in the effects of climate change all around us.  Anything we, or you on the EPA staff, can do to slow this stampede to self annihilation is important.

None of us like rules for ourselves, but from kindergarten to family to city, state, federal and even international entities-we all have rules that are for the common good.  There are rules that a tire company cannot dump our old tires on an empty lot, or our oil change center cannot dump our used crankcase oil in the storm sewers that go to the river.  Our air is just as sacred as our earth and water.

And now we are dealing with methane and other toxic byproducts that are part of the oil and gas industry that is so important to all of us in this area in SE NM.  And the methane problem may be even more prevalent than what is self reported by the industry.  But we do know that it has dire effects- both locally and globally.  Fossil fuels have been the lifeblood of our culture for more than 100 years, but they are also our poison.

On top of that, there has been virtually NO enforcement of air quality standards for the last 9 years here in New Mexico of even the pollution laws that we do have, and the EPA is little better.  So any reasonable laws for the good of all – all of us and all of the world, as well as realistically feasible for the oil and gas industry, should be created- and enforced.

In this highly competitive oil and gas industry,  reasonable standards would cost a little more to implement, so it would not be fair to those companies that want to do the right thing, if not all operators are playing by the same reasonable rules to contain methane pollution.

We are the wild west, but we are also God’s children that have a responsibility for our siblings around the world, and our posterity.  As world leaders, we as a nation should set pollution standards, and enforce them.

If the EPA doesn’t take the lead on this, who will?

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.

 

Carlsbad Current Argus. Sep. 3, 2020 New Mexico finalizes oil and gas wastewater regulations, lawmakers hear testimony (Rev. Nick King Quoted)

Las Cruces Sun-News,  Aug. 19, 2020, Report on solving climate crisis brings hope (Co-authored by Michael Sells, Clara Sims and Edith Yanez)

Santa Fe New Mexican, Aug. 15, 2020 Vote your values this November  (Commentary by Larry Rasmussen and Tabitha Arnold)