You would think that a Congress that was going to take away our health care would want us to have a healthy environment in which to survive the lack of access to health care.
In 2014, NASA discovered a methane cloud the size of Delaware lurking over the Four Corners region. Colorado has been a leader in the nation of cleaning up some of the byproducts of oil and gas production, including curbing methane waste.
Also in 2014, the BLM methane rule was enacted, modeled after Colorado’s regulation. It helps to keep leaks from gas pipes from polluting our air, lungs, crops, rivers and streams.
Both state and federal rules, with input from oil and gas industry, tribes and regulators, mitigated the loss of 330 million dollars in taxpayer-owned gas to venting, flaring and pipeline leakage. This has been a boon, not only for Montezuma county coffers, but for the general health and welfare of the people and environment of the Four Corners area.
The BLM methane rule is currently under threat as Congress seeks to invoke a little used tool called the Congressional Review Act to repeal it. If there are problems with this rule, let’s revisit and revise, not repeal it.
Please call your members of Congress to request that our public resources be handled responsibly with an eye to stewardship of the public health, environmental protection and against repeal of the BLM Methane Rule.
Holly Rankin
Mancos