NMIPL IN THE NEWS

Methane Comments: Patricia Sheely

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(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).

My name is Patricia Sheely. I grew up in Ohio and have spent the last 30 years in Gallup, NM, at the edge of the Navajo reservation. I am a retired dietitian. My faith background is United Methodist. These days I follow an interfaith path. I would like to thank you for allowing me to speak. I believe that we need strong regulation of methane emissions. This must be done at the federal level rather than state by state. While New Mexico has strong methane rules other states do not and methane knows no boundaries.

I have two overriding concerns. The first is the health of the people living near oil and gas fields, especially children and women of childbearing age. The second is the climate crisis.

Breathing methane causes asthma and heart disease. Our highest priority should be on the health of our infants and children as they represent our future.

The people who live in the Permian Basin in southeast New Mexico and in the San Juan Basin in the northeast corner are already in danger of poor health. Our native population and low-income families are the most effected and they are suffering. They do not have the resources to move. Nor should they be forced to leave their sacred homelands. Breathing methane causes asthma and heart disease. Our highest priority should be on the health of our infants and children as they represent our future. Besides affecting a person’s quality of life, health problems raise the cost of health care for all of us.

The climate crisis is an existential crisis. I never thought I would live to see and experience the changes that are taking place in our weather patterns. Our climate is changing faster and in ways that scientists have been unable to predict. This has resulted in an unprecedented loss of biodiversity that is only going to increase. People are not able to live in their homelands due to sea level rise and extremely hot temperatures. This puts stress on migration. Crops can’t be grown for lack of water and high temperatures resulting in less food production. Agricultural and construction workers cannot tolerate the high temperatures. More pandemics are predicted. The climate crisis is affecting all aspects of our lives and it spares no one, especially the sick and the poor.

I want to ask you to think outside of the box and consider possibilities that are beyond business as usual. For too long the policies of the United States have been driven by economics, jobs, and the cost to the corporations and their profits. We must now make the health of children and the environment our priority. I agree with the philosophy of Native peoples. All decisions should be made by considering how this decision will affect the seventh generation. This prevents the problems that arise from short-sighted thinking. We must think long term as we act quickly in the short term.

The universe has moved forward over billions of years by exploring new opportunities for advancement. We as people and society can do the same. The universe is asking us to do just that. I fear that if humanity is not willing to act in this way, the Earth will evolve forward without us. My goal today was to speak for our children, the entire earth community of plants, animals and humanity, and the environment that supports us. I ask that the EPA move quickly on methane rules that address venting, flaring, and low producing wells.

Thank you.

Methane Comments: Odile Coirier

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(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).

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 appreciate this opportunity to share why strong federal methane rules are important to me and my community. I thank you for your work on the methane supplemental rule proposal that will help protect our environment and our communities.

In El Paso, we have great concern about the quality of life and health of our communities. We are in the Permian Basin and in Texas where oil and gas production are prominent.

As people of religious tradition, we are drawn by this moral imperative to care for our common home and work for the dignity of every human being. It is about Justice! And especially toward those many voices who are not heard in the rule makings and are affected most.

In El Paso, we have great concern about the quality of life and health of our communities. We are in the Permian Basin and in Texas where oil and gas production are prominent. I went several times in the Permian, the story of the people is alarming, disturbing, sad.  The destruction of the environment is disturbing as well!

Our area has several wells. EPA has the power to ensure that the oil and gas production facilities will operate in a safer way. Methane pollution brings with it well documented health problems especially for our low-income communities.

We know that Texas doesn’t have strong methane rules. We need you!

This Methane supplemental rule proposal is an important step forward. and specially 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.\

I am counting on this Administration and your agency to quickly address these concerns, and to finalize strong, comprehensive Methane rules.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my comments. Thanks for your commitment for social justice  at the service of our communities.

 

Methane Comments: David Robertson

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(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).

My name is David Robertson. I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I am a retired professional engineer. I spent 35 years working on energy efficiency as a research engineer and a facilities engineer. 

There are many reasons to implement strong federal methane safeguards. I have personal reasons that we need these safeguards. I am concerned for myself, my friends, my family, and future generations as we suffer the effects of oil and gas production and climate change. My son and his family – which includes 3 young children – live in West Texas in the Permian basin – a large  oil and natural gas producing area. The region has produced large quantities of methane and VOCs over the years, which contribute to climate change and poor air quality. I am concerned for the health of my son and his family. Families living close to oil and gas who suffer from terrible health conditions. They experience, first hand, growing concerns of health, quality of life, environmental pollution and deterioration of air quality. I have friends in California who just this week had to evacuate to escape flooding and mudslides. I have family and friends on the East Coast who are impacted by sea level rise. We in the Southwest United States are experiencing extreme drought. Immigrants are at our borders escaping the effects of climate change. The damage from climate change to life on the planet is all around us. 

I am concerned for myself, my friends, my family, and future generations as we suffer the effects of oil and gas production and climate change. My son and his family – which includes 3 young children – live in West Texas in the Permian basin – a large  oil and natural gas producing area. The region has produced large quantities of methane and VOCs over the years, which contribute to climate change and poor air quality.

I am a member of the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque and New Mexico Interfaith Power and light. The people of faith of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light have worked with the EPA on creating strong methane rules since the beginning of this process. We are working hard for the Common Good. We count on the EPA to work in good faith with us. We need to act quickly for strong rules. This ethical and moral work is not optional, it is the demand of loving service. 

I am a strong advocate for care of creation and protection of this wonderful world we have been blessed with. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect the environment. That includes plants, animals, and people. It is life on this planet that I am most concerned about. We have a spiritual, ethical and moral duty to love and care for our neighbor and creation. 

Oil and gas companies are wasting about $2 billion a year worth of natural gas through venting, flaring, and leaks. At a time when Americans are struggling to pay home heating bills, it is unconscionable that oil companies are literally burning natural gas into the air – a practice that is wasteful and harmful to health. 

Commonsense fixes to reduce methane emissions can be done for little cost. Oil and gas companies seeing record profits could deploy these fixes to reduce methane emissions for pennies on the dollar.

Corporate greed is driving energy prices.

While American families struggle at the pump and communities suffer from the impacts of climate change, Big Oil CEOs are raking in record profits – more than $210 billion in the first six months of 2022. Instead of reducing prices, Big Oil is lining their pockets.

Through methane protections we can create good-paying jobs, lower families’ energy costs, and reduce pollution. Reducing methane emissions is the fastest, easiest and cheapest thing we can do to immediately slow the pace of climate change. Methane pollution has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Cutting methane pollution from the oil and gas industry is the quickest, most cost-effective way to slow the rate of climate change and protect communities across the country. 

Every day that passes without strong federal methane safeguards in place is a missed opportunity to reduce climate and air pollution from the oil and gas industry, protect the health and wellbeing of communities across this country, and put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work building a more efficient and secure energy system. We cannot continue to wait.

We must act now to stop the worst harm. It is urgent that we implement, strengthen, and finalize these rules and make sure there is industry oversight once they are in place.

I urge you to take all possible measures to put in place strong federal safeguards to reduce methane emissions. 

Thank you for the opportunity to make a public comment on this issue. 

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)