More robust methane rules help outdoor rec businesses

New Mexico’s outdoor recreation economy and businesses like Far Flung Adventures rely on access to New Mexico’s lovely and iconic public rivers. In their natural state, the Rio Grande, Pecos, Gila, Chama, San Juan and Canadian Rivers nourish our souls and support the vitality of communities and cultures we inhabit.

Rivers are at once powerful and vulnerable. Over the past half-century, the double-whammy of careless over-development and climate disruption have diminished native stream flows, to the point we can no longer deny there is a crisis brewing in the future of vital waterways.

Dependents of the Colorado River are beginning to face terrible choices concerning future water supplies for cities and farms. Alarmingly, we note our Gila River may have passed the tipping point from a self-regulating, snowmelt-driven flow regime into a less-reliable summer precipitation-driven one. Moreover, our state has recently witnessed climate change-related disasters like the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon and Black Canyon fires.

Sadly, in the U.S. alone, the oil and gas industry releases 16 million metric tons of methane each year, with the same near-term climate impact as 350 coal plants. Poor air quality is not only harmful to the health of our communities but also harms local economies that rely on access to the outdoors.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s methane rule was put in place to reduce emissions in oil and gas development. It aims at cutting pollution from smaller wells with leak-prone equipment, requires inspections at abandoned wells and improves well monitoring. It takes steps to address routine flaring, but can and must go further by eliminating this wasteful practice. EPA must strengthen the methane rule to protect public health and the environment, so that future generations may continue to enjoy the hiking, biking, swimming, climbing, skiing and rafting that make New Mexico a uniquely desirable place to live.

It’s the least we can do. With strong common sense protections against methane and other harmful emissions from the oil and gas industry, our growing outdoor recreation economy, like our agriculture industry, may be allowed to grow and thrive.

Steve Harris runs Far Flung Adventures in Taos.