News from April
Howdy y’all! We were in Texas and New Mexico this month talking to people in frontline communities and workers in the oilfields and doing educational tours documenting the emissions crisis in the Permian.
Our Work in the Media
Inside Climate News wrote about The Hidden Climate Costs of Exporting US Liquefied Natural Gas and featured a video from when Sharon and Charlie took journalist Phil McKenna to the Gulf to see LNG facilities and their emissions.
Inside Climate News also wrote about a conviction of oil executives in a case where a worker and the worker’s wife died from hydrogen sulfide poisoning. Sharon has been advocating for regulations to protect oilfield workers from hydrogen sulfide for a long time and was quoted in the article.
“Operators are not following the law,” said Wilson, who now works with Oilfield Witness, a nonprofit organization tracking the oil industry. “It’s no surprise that people are being injured and dying.”
Fieldwork
Charlie was in the New Mexico Permian Basin for an educational tour with representatives from the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthrights, and the field staff of U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan.
During the tour, they visited the refinery in Artesia, New Mexico, and explored several oil and gas sites on federal land in the Loco Hills region.
Senator Ben Ray Lujan’s field staff observing an OGI camera in action at the Sinclair Refinery in Artesia, NM 4/9/2025
Emissions from the Artesia Refinery
Education
Justin guest lectured (virtually) at University of Maryland’s Climate in Crisis course.
Our Writing
Charlie is our resident ecologist and continues to raise attention to the extreme impacts of oil and gas production on the environment and wildlife and he wrote about the bleak outlook for the lesser prairie chickens of the New Mexico Permian Basin.
“..the oil and gas industry’s expansion into the New Mexico Permian has resulted in severe consequences for the lesser-prairie chicken through habitat fragmentation, diminished landscape connectivity, increased noise and light disturbances, and climate stressors. Without immediate regulatory oversight and conservation efforts, the future of this iconic species and its habitat in the American Southwest will remain under threat.”
Justin wrote about the insanity of pushing LNG exports (liquefied methane) while the world is facing a methane crisis.
‘We are facing a methane emergency and reducing methane emissions may be our only hope of avoiding catastrophic warming and the United States is trying to get the rest of the world to agree to use methane (aka natural gas) by importing LNG. This will be like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.
Who is the worst in the world when it comes to releasing methane from oil and gas operations? The U.S.”
Video Work
Miguel was in the Permian with author and journalist Justin Nobel where they spoke to oilfield workers about risks associated with their work.
Miguel continues to talk directly to the public on Instagram and TikTok like this video where he explains an issue we learned about from Hawk Dunlap.
Promotion
Patagonia promoted our work for us in an ad campaign. We are always looking for new ways to get our information out to the public and greatly appreciate this opportunity.
– Till the end of oil
The Oilfield Witness Team