This letter is provided as opinion/commentary from the author. You can submit your own:editor@citydesk.org
Charles Goodmacher, a resident of Rio Rancho, is the retired director of media and government relations for NEA-NM and founder of Do Good LLC, a lobbying and communications firm working in public policy.
Words matter. Sometimes comforting words obscure unfortunate realities. It can be harmful when words unintentionally diminish the impact of what we allow to be done to our environment and how it affects our health.
Charles Goodmacher, Rio Rancho
The fossil fuel industry and supporters in New Mexico use the word “clean” to describe the extraction, transportation and consumption of their oil and gas products. Industry supporters say they would rather have oil and gas pumped here where the industry is “clean.” Not a bad thought, but is it “clean,” or simply “less dirty?”
When used as intended, fossil fuels are inherently dirty. Oil and gas do not meet the Oxford Dictionary definition of “clean:” “free from any dirty marks, pollution, bacteria, etc.” The word implies there are no threats to human or environmental health from something which is clean.
Yes, important steps have been taken to make the industry cleaner: limits on methane, increasing EV adaptation and new “clean fuels” legislation. Yet, multiple reports prove oil and gas here has yet to become “clean.”
Horrible health threats created by our New Mexico industry are proven in a scientific study that found ozone levels in Loving exceeded the EPA threshold 31 times, worse than in Los Angeles. The study shows ozone there comes from oil and gas production and no other causes.
Sixty percent of oil and gas facilities studied in the Permian Basin had emissions of Volatile Emission Compounds (VOCs). “The results of our … investigations are cause for alarm, with a meager 40% compliance rate,” Environment Department Secretary James Kenney said in yet another report. “With the impacts of climate change ravaging our state and air quality degrading, we have no choice but to increase sanctions on polluters until we see a commitment to change behavior.” (EPA press release, July 5,2024)
Dirty air, land and water are byproducts of the oil and gas industry in our Northwest region too. Industry giant Hilcorp entered a $9.4 million settlement agreement with the EPA and the New Mexico Environment Department. The company violated the Clean Air Act and state air quality laws while recompleting gas wells in the San Juan Basin. Those cases show “systemic design flaws and systemic practices that propagated noncompliance time and time again,” Kenney said. “These are pretty egregious and systemic noncompliance or violations.”
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a byproduct which too many New Mexicans breath in elevated levels because of oil and gas. VOCs increase ground-level ozone (smog) — which worsens asthma and respiratory disease, causes nervous system and developmental harms and causes cancer. Children are especially vulnerable to VOCs and smog. Dr. Graziano, a board member of Healthy Climate New Mexico adds, “The negative health effects are significant. Broadly, they contribute to diseases of the cardiac, respiratory, neurologic, reproductive, and immune systems. They cause cancer. They cause premature death.” Rising heat increases VOC threats to human health. Chemical reactions within VOC’s worsen during heat waves and rising temperatures.
Benzene, ethylbenzene and n-hexane, nitrogen oxide and many other hazardous chemicals are products of the “clean” oil and gas industry. Particulate matter — tiny, invisible particles which travel throughout our bodies to cause damage. Our lungs and the rest of our bodies are harmed. Tragically, the health of neighbors working in the oil and gas industry are the most threatened by the product of their labor.
Our people are served best when our leaders make moves to have oil and gas become truly clean. Efforts to keep making our industry “cleaner” must be taken so that one day, we can all rightfully achieve a “clean” and healthy New Mexico. Until then, let’s stop saying oil and gas are “clean.”
Words matter: Stop calling oil and gas “clean” until they truly are
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This letter is provided as opinion/commentary from the author. You can submit your own: editor@citydesk.org
Charles Goodmacher, a resident of Rio Rancho, is the retired director of media and government relations for NEA-NM and founder of Do Good LLC, a lobbying and communications firm working in public policy.
Words matter. Sometimes comforting words obscure unfortunate realities. It can be harmful when words unintentionally diminish the impact of what we allow to be done to our environment and how it affects our health.
The fossil fuel industry and supporters in New Mexico use the word “clean” to describe the extraction, transportation and consumption of their oil and gas products. Industry supporters say they would rather have oil and gas pumped here where the industry is “clean.” Not a bad thought, but is it “clean,” or simply “less dirty?”
When used as intended, fossil fuels are inherently dirty. Oil and gas do not meet the Oxford Dictionary definition of “clean:” “free from any dirty marks, pollution, bacteria, etc.” The word implies there are no threats to human or environmental health from something which is clean.
Yes, important steps have been taken to make the industry cleaner: limits on methane, increasing EV adaptation and new “clean fuels” legislation. Yet, multiple reports prove oil and gas here has yet to become “clean.”
Horrible health threats created by our New Mexico industry are proven in a scientific study that found ozone levels in Loving exceeded the EPA threshold 31 times, worse than in Los Angeles. The study shows ozone there comes from oil and gas production and no other causes.
Sixty percent of oil and gas facilities studied in the Permian Basin had emissions of Volatile Emission Compounds (VOCs). “The results of our … investigations are cause for alarm, with a meager 40% compliance rate,” Environment Department Secretary James Kenney said in yet another report. “With the impacts of climate change ravaging our state and air quality degrading, we have no choice but to increase sanctions on polluters until we see a commitment to change behavior.” (EPA press release, July 5,2024)
Dirty air, land and water are byproducts of the oil and gas industry in our Northwest region too. Industry giant Hilcorp entered a $9.4 million settlement agreement with the EPA and the New Mexico Environment Department. The company violated the Clean Air Act and state air quality laws while recompleting gas wells in the San Juan Basin. Those cases show “systemic design flaws and systemic practices that propagated noncompliance time and time again,” Kenney said. “These are pretty egregious and systemic noncompliance or violations.”
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a byproduct which too many New Mexicans breath in elevated levels because of oil and gas. VOCs increase ground-level ozone (smog) — which worsens asthma and respiratory disease, causes nervous system and developmental harms and causes cancer. Children are especially vulnerable to VOCs and smog. Dr. Graziano, a board member of Healthy Climate New Mexico adds, “The negative health effects are significant. Broadly, they contribute to diseases of the cardiac, respiratory, neurologic, reproductive, and immune systems. They cause cancer. They cause premature death.” Rising heat increases VOC threats to human health. Chemical reactions within VOC’s worsen during heat waves and rising temperatures.
Benzene, ethylbenzene and n-hexane, nitrogen oxide and many other hazardous chemicals are products of the “clean” oil and gas industry. Particulate matter — tiny, invisible particles which travel throughout our bodies to cause damage. Our lungs and the rest of our bodies are harmed. Tragically, the health of neighbors working in the oil and gas industry are the most threatened by the product of their labor.
Our people are served best when our leaders make moves to have oil and gas become truly clean. Efforts to keep making our industry “cleaner” must be taken so that one day, we can all rightfully achieve a “clean” and healthy New Mexico. Until then, let’s stop saying oil and gas are “clean.”