Pruitt, keep Methane Rule intact
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt: As a resident of New Mexico, I am extending to you a cheerful and hearty welcome to come and live and work in the middle of the Permian Basin or in the town of Farmington.
Since you do not think there is a problem with leaking methane and want to delay the implementation of the Leak Detection and Repair part of the Methane Rule, you should come here and experience it, firsthand. Breathe deeply!
Please, bring your family, I’m sure Cade and McKenna would love it, also. Oh, you probably do not think this is such a good idea for your family. Am I correct? But it is all right for other families to live with respiratory ailments. Being head of the EPA, your responsibility is to the people of the United States.
When you enter the doors of the First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow, do you think of all of the sick children and their parents having to live with pollution at their doorsteps? After all, being a Christian means that mankind is your business and responsibility, not making money for the fossil fuel industry.
Well, here are the facts. Children miss 500,000 days of school nationally each year because of smog resulting from oil and gas pollution. A study in Pennsylvania showed that there were greater percentages of preterm births among women who lived near natural gas plants and that their babies had lower birth weights. But you know this already.
When you attended your Cabinet hearing to be administrator of the EPA, you said, “I am blessed today to have my family in attendance with me.” What type of air do they breathe? Is your home next to a gas plant? Oh, and here we go again, you were “blessed.” Always thinking about God but never acting like a Christian.
Your record stands out loud and clear. You are an enemy of the people and have no right being head of any environmental organization. You have accepted more than $300,000 from the oil and gas industry over the years. When you became attorney general of Oklahoma, one of your first acts was to abolish the Oklahoma EPA. Why would you do such a thing? Money. Well, God will judge you and your actions. Don’t you need clean air? Clean water?
In closing, I would like to remind you that you are in bed with the devil, making deals to further your own greed and those of your buddies in the oil industry. I hope you sleep well tonight, while children are up coughing.
The one ray of hope is that it is no longer economically feasible to use oil and gas. New Mexico is already starting to turn things around in favor of renewable energy. Our New Mexico communities deserve the good-neighbor, common-sense, low-cost methane rules — the EPA should enforce the Obama-era Methane Rule.
Tom Mavilia is a retired teacher living in Arroyo Hondo and a volunteer trail crew member for the Carson National Forest.
Since you do not think there is a problem with leaking methane and want to delay the implementation of the Leak Detection and Repair part of the Methane Rule, you should come here and experience it, firsthand. Breathe deeply!