Albuquerque Journal

Senators should keep methane rule

Colorado’s experience shows cutting emissions is good for business and the environmen­t

- BY GWEN LACHELT LA PLATA COUNTY COMMISSION­ER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR WESTERN LEADERS NETWORK

As the Bureau of Land Management’s recently adopted rule to limit natural gas waste from the oil and gas industry hangs in limbo, it is imperative that our United State senators stand up for their constituen­ts and oppose the use of the Congressio­nal Review Act to kill the rule.

The CRA is a blunt tool that, if successful, would prevent the implementa­tion of any “substantia­lly similar” rule, allowing the oil and natural gas industry to continue to waste hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-owned resources every year while using outdated, wasteful technologi­es.

A vote on the CRA is expected as early as Tuesday, and New Mexico’s U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall both have stated their support for keeping the rule.

While the BLM rule is pertinent to states across the nation, it holds a special significan­ce where I live, in the Four Corners area, which regretfull­y holds the title “methane hotspot.” In 2014, NASA and the University of Michigan released a report that found the Four Corners region, which includes parts of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, to have the highest concentrat­ion of methane in the country. Most of it is attributed to the San Juan Basin’s natural gas extraction industry.

Though Colorado has rules in place to limit and regulate methane venting and flaring, New Mexico — a hub for the energy industry — does not. With 35,000 oil and gas wells on public lands across the state line from my county, the BLM methane rule is the only hope for addressing the methane cloud.

Three years ago, Colorado became the first state to adopt a rule to cut down on methane waste and pollution. The rule had support from both environmen­tal advocates and oil and gas operators, and it did not curtail the industry. In fact, the state’s natural gas production increased by about 10 percent, oil production by 58 percent, and the number of oil and gas wells by more than 3 percent. Other states adopted similar methane-cutting rules, including Wyoming, Ohio and Pennsylvan­ia.

The benefits of the rule are not just environmen­tal. A study released this month by Datu Research highlights how the methane leak detection and repair industry is creating well-paying jobs. Among the report’s key findings: at least 60 companies in the methanered­ucing industry provide services to oil and gas operators in 45 states, and 37 percent of those businesses were founded within the past six years. Companies have experience­d up to 30 percent business growth in states with methane regulation­s.

Moreover, reducing venting and flaring under the rule would generate as much as $23 million in royalties annually for the federal government and states that share that money, as well as more than $330 million worth of natural gas each year.

The rule has garnered strong bipartisan support among western stakeholde­rs who now urge their senators to support local government­s, their constituen­ts and taxpayers by opposing the Congressio­nal Review Act. Since February, Western Leaders Network, a newly created nonprofit for local leaders throughout the Interior West, has received signatures from 120 local and tribal elected officials in six western states. The letter includes 14 New Mexico officials from Albuquerqu­e, Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Aztec and Bernalillo and Mora counties. All want Congress to keep the BLM rule — for the benefit of the environmen­t, public health and western economies.

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