This week, we presented the EPA with over 400,000 comments from a diverse coalition of partners and allies, which includes the voices of parents, faith groups, public health practitioners, environmental advocates, and more, all of whom support EPA’s proposed rule to cut methane from oil and gas operations. Actually, the morning of the event, our numbers tipped over to 450,000 signatures! Our signs were instantly outdated, and we were thrilled! Cutting methane pollution is one of the most effective ways to fight climate change and protect the health of children and frontline communities from air pollution.
Where there are oil and gas operations, you can find methane leaking along with toxic pollutants. This air pollution is harming the health of millions of people living near and far away. It is also impacting Black, Indigenous, and Latino communities that are disproportionately exposed to dirty air, including harmful pollution from oil and gas operations, because of where they live, learn, work, and play. Protecting public health means keeping everyone’s air clean and safe to breathe, and cutting methane pollution from the oil and gas industry is essential to this effort.
For 10 years, Moms Clean Air Force has been working to protect families from methane pollution and other harmful air pollution from the oil and gas industry. This pollution puts families’ health at risk and makes climate change worse. We need EPA methane rules to establish baseline protections for all children and communities across the nation, especially for those who live in states that have failed to enact meaningful oil and gas methane protections.
Methane pollution from the oil and gas industry is fueling the climate crisis, and endangering the health and safety of communities across the country. We met with EPA officials at the agency’s headquarters to show our support for the proposed EPA methane rules, urging EPA to finalize the strongest and most comprehensive methane rules to protect children’s health from all sources of oil and gas methane pollution, including small wells.