Yesterday’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) listening session in Farmington, New Mexico on the proposed rule to curb natural gas waste was quite heated, with huge representation from both sides—those in favor and those against the rule. But those in favor of the rule won the day, with their strong, factual comments and support for this critical regulation.
Among those who testified in support of the BLM’s proposed rule was Don Schreiber, a rancher and long-time resident of Rio Arriba County, NM. Mr. Schreiber’s family has lived in the Farmington area since the 1940s, which means that he’s seen plenty of boom and bust cycles with the oil and gas industry. He’s also felt the impacts of venting and flaring, particularly in the form of lost revenue for taxpayers due to a lack of royalties being charged on gas that is vented or flared.
In a new video (above) that we released yesterday, Mr. Schreiber shares these same thoughts and urges westerners to take action and support the BLM rule:
“What’s frustrating for us is to see the waste of public revenue, public dollars that go up—literally up in the air—when that well is flared. There goes the public’s money, up in the air, you can just see the dollar bills being burned. BLM could stop that—that’s what we need to ask them to do.”
There will be three more hearings on the BLM waste rule in the coming weeks, in Oklahoma, Colorado, and North Dakota. If you can’t make it to the hearings in person, be sure to add your voice here.