Howdy y’all!  In October Sharon and Miguel went to Mexico where Sharon testified in Congress at the release of a new bill designed to ban fracking in Mexico. We did a lot of work with media outlets that will be published soon and Charlie was back out in the New Mexico oilfields.

Mexico and Fracking

On October 15th, Oilfield Witness participated in a historic day for environmental justice in Mexico when the Mexican Congressional Chamber of Deputies introduced a bill to ban fracking in their country. In September, Sharon, Miguel, and Dr. Sandra Steingraber (Senior scientist at Science & Environmental Health Network) provided a tour of the Permian Basin to a Mexican delegation of activists and members of the Mexican Congress. They warned of the dangers and highlighted the environmental, health and worker impacts of fracking. Inspired by what they saw in the field, the Alianza Mexicana Contra el Fracking (AMCF) [Mexican Alliance Against Fracking] and the participating ally Mexican Congress members decided to take action the very next month.

On October 15 Congressional Deputies Xochitl Nashielly Zagal Ramirez (MORENA Party), Manuel Vazquez Arellano (MORENA Party), Adrian Gonzalez Naveda (Workers’ Party), and Olga Juliana Elizondo Guerra (Workers’ Party) introduced legislation to ban fracking in Mexico–an unfulfilled campaign promise of the ruling left-wing party MORENA for nearly a decade. Mexico’s state-owned oil company PEMEX is interested in conducting exploratory fracking projects in the country’s Northeastern region. This October day of action consisted of three important events to educate the public about fracking.

Mexican anti-fracking activists

First, a photography exhibition in the halls of the Chamber of Deputies. The exhibit–entitled “Así se ve el fracking” / “This is what fracking looks like”–included Sharon’s OGI documentation in multiple pieces.

Second, AMCF and allied deputies organized a forum for the Mexican public entitled “Fracking in Mexico: Infrastructure, Impacts and Resistance.” Here Sharon shared her personal experience suffering the impacts of fracking and her decades of fighting back. Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a biologist, detailed the human impacts of the oil and gas industry, citing the “fracking compendium” she helped compile. The forum included voices of indigenous communities who have suffered sickness, cancer, pollution of their air and water, and oil spills from the existing PEMEX oil and gas infrastructure–the Totonaca people of Veracruz, and the Huastecas in San Luis Potosí

Thirdly, the day ended with a press conference that highlighted the urgency of fulfilling MORENA’s campaign promise to ban fracking, and the importance of avoiding the Texas route of widescale ecological disaster.

Our Work in the Media

Dr. Sandra Steingraber joined us in the Permian in September to help educate visiting Mexican lawmakers on the realities of fracking. In October she traveled with Sharon and Miguel to Mexico to support efforts to ban fracking in Mexico. She wrote about that here:

“The Mexican legislators who toured the Permian Basin in September—and who included members of both of the dominant political parties—went back to Mexico City and did two things.

First, on October 15, they hosted a Congressional forum on fracking in Mexico, complete with a photography exhibit that included many of the images from our fact-finding mission to the Permian Basin that illustrated the horrors of fracking.

And second, at the end of that forum, the legislators introduced an initiative to ban fracking that would take the form of an amendment to the law and Constitution. Their proposal was immediately co-endorsed by two additional legislators.”

Sharon was interviewed by Kaj Embren.

Justin was on the Redefining Energy podcast to talk about the LNG market.

Fieldwork

On Tuesday October 28th, we were joined by folks from Healthy Climate, Interfaith Power and Light, New Mexico Conservation Voters, Amigos Bravos, Texas A&M University, and Citizens Caring for The Future for a field tour of facilities within the city limits of Artesia and Carlsbad New Mexico. This was in support of a local effort to influence the Carlsbad City Council to reject the application for oil and gas permits within city limits.

Members of Healthy Climate, Amigos Bravos, NM Conservation Voters, NMIPL, CCFF, & Texas A&M University

We also conducted field work in Loco Hills where we continue to document emissions events on BLM and state land. As per usual, venting and flaring events were plentiful.

Spur Energy partially combusted flare

Charlie’s oil spill results

Last month we showed you a photo of an oil spill Charlie found while doing fieldwork in New Mexico. That photo got some people’s attention as the state of New Mexico is currently considering new rules to make polluters pay to clean up the messes they make producing oil and gas.

Due to Charlie creating visibility around the issue and filing complaints, it actually was addressed. However, as you can see from this new video, the end result isn’t good.

Education

Tim went to Canada with our FLIR camera earlier this year and recently presented some of the findings. Of course he found plenty of methane emissions in the oil and gas fields.

Our Writing

Jack wrote about how the media reports industry press releases as fact when it comes to methane emissions and how this misleads the public.

“Companies like S&P which are for-profit and have oil and gas clientele generate data without making the raw data nor their modeling public. A report based on it is then released to the public with a press release. The press release takes the most optimistic possible interpretation of the results. In this case, claiming emissions are down significantly in the Permian Basin and suggesting this is the result of industry action. The press release is distributed and reported on by journalists who assume based on the institutional credibility of the company that the data is accurate.”

- Till the end of oil

The Oilfield Witness Team