On “Methane Goes Boom!” [Alibi v28 i14]: Allowing waste of natural resources is a bad thing in a state dependent on those natural resources. But the industry is responsible for more than just methane capture and having a rule. The Green Party has been asking for a fracking moratorium for years now, ever since the Thrust Energy permit application in Sandoval County reared its head. We do not think it’s adequate enough to just say no to fracking by Chaco Canyon. We have a climate emergency and see failures of both Congress and our own State Legislature to act on a moratorium on more carbon outputs. There is also a failure to address New Mexico’s role as a major national carbon contributor. We cannot do the unsustainable increase in production to the 10 million barrels a day by 2030 and meet the Paris agreement. Greta from Sweden would tell you that.We have a school in the vicinity of fracking operations that has shut down time and again from fugitive emissions including methane. When it disrupts classroom learning as at Counselor, there should be an automatic requirement that corporations pay for whole school air filtration systems. You don’t get to impact our children’s education.Also, on the end use front, we are still a state that has no venting capture devices at the gas pump. Why should citizens have to have lung-destroying toxics forming in New Mexico’s air? Those are fugitive emissions going on for decades. FLIR those too!Finally, for the NM administration trying to ramp up enforcement, I have a suggestion based on the work of a former Green Party candidate for NM governor in 1994, former Lt. Governor Roberto Mondragon. The NM Dept. of Agriculture has over 100 employees. Almost one-third do weights and measures for gasoline and diesel fuels. Those should most appropriately be funded by the oil and gas industry and the well inspections added to their work. Let agriculture do agriculture. And let’s have that agriculture be organic, of course. Bioremediation with hemp would be good, too. Thanks.
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