Commentary: Statement from Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Director Camilla Feibelman on today’s N.M. Senate confirmation Gov. Susana Martinez’s nominee for secretary of the Energy, Mining and Natural Minerals Department:
“Ken McQueen’s answers were troubling for someone who is supposed to be regulating the energy companies in our state and protecting New Mexico residents.
McQueen refuted solid science several times and showed more concern for oil-company profits than for the wellbeing of New Mexicans.
McQueen’s statements show an alarming tendency to think like a spokesman for oil companies, not someone who is supposed to be regulating them.”
Some McQueen answers:
On the methane hotspot hanging over the Four Corners area that NASA scientist have determined is in large part caused by natural-gas drilling in the area: “My personal opinion is that the methane hotspot has existed for at least the last 10 million years” and is naturally occurring.
On climate change: “I think climate change has been with us since the beginning of time. …it’s quite clear that there were times in our history when the earth was colder than it is today and there were times when it was hotter than it is today.”
“Yes, the climate is always changing. And it has never changed as fast as it is changing now — because of human activity, according to the overwhelming majority of scientists,” Feibelman said. “McQueen’s answer is a Fox News talking point used by climate deniers to make refusing to protect our children seem less monstrous. Scientists tell us that if we don’t act quickly to reduce carbon pollution, climate disruption could have catastrophic effects on civilization within decades.”
On Oil Conservation Division regaining its authority to assess fines on oil companies that commit safety violations:
“I’m convinced that oil and gas companies in NM are being compliant or that OCD is able to bring them into compliance under the current rules without fines. “
McQueen repeatedly danced around the question of whether the Oil and Gas Conservation Division’s ability to fine companies that violate safety regulations should be restored. Current legislation restoring that ability and increasing fines from their 1935 levels is going through the Legislature, and senators asked why no Oil Conservation Division representatives had showed for hearings on SB307. McQueen called compliance a complicated issue and didn’t seem to oppose the legislation, but refused to support it.
Background: Gov. Martinez named Ken McQueen, former vice president of oil company WPX, to head New Mexico’s Energy, Mining and Natural Resources Department, which regulates oil and gas activity and enforces oil and gas statutes. WPX has drilled more than 100 wells in recent years in northwest New Mexico, including some across the highway from Lybrook Elementary School. WPX is the company whose 36 oil storage tanks caught on fire over the summer in the San Juan Basin, forcing 55 residents to evacuate their homes.
Additional Methane Facts:
While Secretary Designate McQueen seems to not understand the science of the San Juan Basin Cloud (saying in committee it was naturally occurring) here are the facts:
· In 2014 NASA scientists detected a 2,500-square mile cloud of methane, the highest concentration of the heat-trapping pollution anywhere in the United States.
· At the time, researchers were confident the cloud was associated with fossil fuels, but unsure of the precise sources. Was it occurring naturally from the region’s coal beds or coming from a leaky oil and gas industry?
· This spring a team mainly funded by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published a new paper in a top scientific journal that starts to provide answers. They find that many of the highest emitting sources are associated with the production, processing and distribution of oil and natural gas.
· For this study, the authors flew over a roughly 1,200-square-mile portion of the San Juan Basin and found more than 250 high-emitting sites, including many oil and gas facilities. They also noted that a small portion of them, about 10%, were responsible for more than half of the studied emissions.
· This does not come as a big surprise. In 2014, according to industry’s self-reported emissions data, oil and gas sources accounted for approximately 80% or methane pollution in the San Juan Basin.
· That leaking methane isn’t just climate pollution; it’s also the waste of a finite natural resource.
· In New Mexico, the vast majority of natural gas production takes place on public and tribal owned lands – meaning that when gas is wasted, it represents a tremendous amount of lost revenue for state and tribal governments. The San Juan Basin is responsible for only 4% of total natural gas production in the country, but responsible for 17% of the nation’s overall natural gas waste on federal and tribal lands. In fact nearly a third of all methane wasted on public and tribal lands occurs in New Mexico.
· A report by ICF International found that venting, flaring and leaks from oil and gas sites on federal and tribal land in New Mexico, alone, effectively threw away $100 million worth of gas in 2013 – the worst record in the nation. That, in turn, represents more than $50 million in lost royalties to taxpayers over the last five years.
· Nearby, we see a different story
· Capturing methane and preventing waste at oil and gas operations on federal lands is an opportunity to save a taxpayer-owned energy resource while at the same time tackling a major source of climate pollution.
· Over the past year, the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees federal and tribal lands such as those in the San Juan Basin, has moved to limit methane emissions. The agency based its action in Iarge part on experiences from New Mexico’s neighboring states, which have started to use modern practices and technologies to dramatically reduce this waste.
· In 2013, San Juan Basin operators reported almost 220,000 metric tons of methane emissions. By comparison, Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin has almost twice the natural gas production of the San Juan Basin, but only half the emissions.
· Why the difference? Wyoming, like Colorado, has worked to put strong new rules in place to reduce emissions. And they are working.
· Strong rules from the state and BLM can do the same, but they must be completed and implemented quickly – to better protect the Land of Enchantment and federal and tribal lands across the U.S.
Statement from Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Director Camilla Feibelman on today’s N.M. Senate confirmation Gov. Susana Martinez’s nominee for secretary of the Energy, Mining and Natural Minerals Department:
“Ken McQueen’s answers were troubling for someone who is supposed to be regulating the energy companies in our state and protecting New Mexico residents.
McQueen refuted solid science several times and showed more concern for oil-company profits than for the wellbeing of New Mexicans.
McQueen’s statements show an alarming tendency to think like a spokesman for oil companies, not someone who is supposed to be regulating them.”
Some McQueen answers:
On the methane hotspot hanging over the Four Corners area that NASA scientist have determined is in large part caused by natural-gas drilling in the area: “My personal opinion is that the methane hotspot has existed for at least the last 10 million years” and is naturally occurring.
On climate change: “I think climate change has been with us since the beginning of time. …it’s quite clear that there were times in our history when the earth was colder than it is today and there were times when it was hotter than it is today.”
“Yes, the climate is always changing. And it has never changed as fast as it is changing now — because of human activity, according to the overwhelming majority of scientists,” Feibelman said. “McQueen’s answer is a Fox News talking point used by climate deniers to make refusing to protect our children seem less monstrous. Scientists tell us that if we don’t act quickly to reduce carbon pollution, climate disruption could have catastrophic effects on civilization within decades.”
On Oil Conservation Division regaining its authority to assess fines on oil companies that commit safety violations:
“I’m convinced that oil and gas companies in NM are being compliant or that OCD is able to bring them into compliance under the current rules without fines. “
McQueen repeatedly danced around the question of whether the Oil and Gas Conservation Division’s ability to fine companies that violate safety regulations should be restored. Current legislation restoring that ability and increasing fines from their 1935 levels is going through the Legislature, and senators asked why no Oil Conservation Division representatives had showed for hearings on SB307. McQueen called compliance a complicated issue and didn’t seem to oppose the legislation, but refused to support it.
Background: Gov. Martinez named Ken McQueen, former vice president of oil company WPX, to head New Mexico’s Energy, Mining and Natural Resources Department, which regulates oil and gas activity and enforces oil and gas statutes. WPX has drilled more than 100 wells in recent years in northwest New Mexico, including some across the highway from Lybrook Elementary School. WPX is the company whose 36 oil storage tanks caught on fire over the summer in the San Juan Basin, forcing 55 residents to evacuate their homes.
Additional Methane Facts:
While Secretary Designate McQueen seems to not understand the science of the San Juan Basin Cloud (saying in committee it was naturally occurring) here are the facts:
· In 2014 NASA scientists detected a 2,500-square mile cloud of methane, the highest concentration of the heat-trapping pollution anywhere in the United States.
· At the time, researchers were confident the cloud was associated with fossil fuels, but unsure of the precise sources. Was it occurring naturally from the region’s coal beds or coming from a leaky oil and gas industry?
· This spring a team mainly funded by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published a new paper in a top scientific journal that starts to provide answers. They find that many of the highest emitting sources are associated with the production, processing and distribution of oil and natural gas.
· For this study, the authors flew over a roughly 1,200-square-mile portion of the San Juan Basin and found more than 250 high-emitting sites, including many oil and gas facilities. They also noted that a small portion of them, about 10%, were responsible for more than half of the studied emissions.
· This does not come as a big surprise. In 2014, according to industry’s self-reported emissions data, oil and gas sources accounted for approximately 80% or methane pollution in the San Juan Basin.
· That leaking methane isn’t just climate pollution; it’s also the waste of a finite natural resource.
· In New Mexico, the vast majority of natural gas production takes place on public and tribal owned lands – meaning that when gas is wasted, it represents a tremendous amount of lost revenue for state and tribal governments. The San Juan Basin is responsible for only 4% of total natural gas production in the country, but responsible for 17% of the nation’s overall natural gas waste on federal and tribal lands. In fact nearly a third of all methane wasted on public and tribal lands occurs in New Mexico.
· A report by ICF International found that venting, flaring and leaks from oil and gas sites on federal and tribal land in New Mexico, alone, effectively threw away $100 million worth of gas in 2013 – the worst record in the nation. That, in turn, represents more than $50 million in lost royalties to taxpayers over the last five years.
· Nearby, we see a different story
· Capturing methane and preventing waste at oil and gas operations on federal lands is an opportunity to save a taxpayer-owned energy resource while at the same time tackling a major source of climate pollution.
· Over the past year, the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees federal and tribal lands such as those in the San Juan Basin, has moved to limit methane emissions. The agency based its action in Iarge part on experiences from New Mexico’s neighboring states, which have started to use modern practices and technologies to dramatically reduce this waste.
· In 2013, San Juan Basin operators reported almost 220,000 metric tons of methane emissions. By comparison, Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin has almost twice the natural gas production of the San Juan Basin, but only half the emissions.
· Why the difference? Wyoming, like Colorado, has worked to put strong new rules in place to reduce emissions. And they are working.
· Strong rules from the state and BLM can do the same, but they must be completed and implemented quickly – to better protect the Land of Enchantment and federal and tribal lands across the U.S.