State should step up on oil and gas pollution

Federal easing of methane restrictions harming environment

We have known for some time that New Mexico has a serious problem with methane pollution. In 2014, NASA scientists discovered a Delaware-sized hot spot of pollution hovering above northwest New Mexico’s San Juan Basin — the highest concentration of this powerful climate pollutant found anywhere in the United States.

Unfortunately, some in the oil and gas industry have tried to delay action that would clean up this pollution problem by attempting to point the methane finger elsewhere. Their attempts to blame the hot spot on “natural causes” are not borne out by the science.

A new study is again underlining the cause of this methane pollution: problems at the tens of thousands of oil and gas wells that dot the basin. According to NOAA, which used specialized aircraft to measure atmospheric methane levels, “the lack of any large increasing trend in groundbased sampling, geologic seepage cannot explain the persistent [methane] emissions in the basin over time.”

In other words, atmospheric methane levels are high, yet measurements taken at the ground from naturally occurring sources are low. The methane cloud culprit: it’s the oil and gas industry.

And the problem is poised to get worse.

Just weeks after the study was released, the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to impose a two-year delay on regulations that would have reduced methane emissions from newly developed oil and gas facilities. And last week, the head of the Department of the Interior told the Senate Energy Committee the Department plans to rewrite a similar rule that would reduce methane emissions from new and existing wells on New Mexico’s federal and tribal lands.

These protections are vital to cleaning the air and reducing energy waste — since methane is the primary component of natural gas. The administration’s reversal on these protections will do unjust harm to New Mexico communities. For instance, if EPA’s rules are put on hold, it will allow 1,500 wells across the state of New Mexico to emit up to 870 tons of climate-forcing methane, 230 tons of smog-forming volatile organic compounds and nine tons of hazardous air pollutants into our air.

Regrettably, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has refused to defend national efforts to protect New Mexico communities from this waste and pollution — and at the same time has failed to implement any protections at the state level.

Fortunately, New Mexico‘s congressional leaders, U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and Reps. Ben Ray Lujan and Michelle Lujan Grisham, have been strong champions for standards that prevent methane waste, and state Attorney General Hector Balderas is among those fighting these federal rollbacks in court. With the Trump administration reversing course on this pressing issue, New Mexico leaders must continue to step up.

Here’s why — every day these common-sense standards are not in place, the public’s health is put at risk, the climate is threatened and New Mexico’s energy resources are wasted.

That’s unacceptable, especially when policies that reduce wasteful methane emissions will create needed New Mexico jobs. Research shows that companies in the pollution-reduction business have grown up to 30 percent in states that have methane protections. And returning more gas to the sales line also means returning more money to New Mexico taxpayers. Without BLM’s methane policies, New Mexico will not be able to recoup royalties from $100 million of gas that companies are wasting every year on the state’s public and tribal lands.

New Mexico leaders have the tools to solve this waste and pollution problem. Unlike other oil- and gas-producing states, New Mexico does not currently require controls for the release of this harmful pollution from oil and gas development. In fact, unlike neighboring states, New Mexico does not even require oil and gas companies to get basic air quality permits before drilling. It is time for New Mexico to take up these tools and cut this waste and pollution.