The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a two-year delay to vital air pollution safeguards that protect our children from dangerous methane, benzene, and other toxic, carcinogenic air pollutants. Under the direction of Administrator Scott Pruitt, the EPA issued an order for a two-year delay on methane pollutions standards, and we have a limited time to fight back.
This reckless decision puts our children in danger, and EPA knows it—the agency even admitted it.
The official notice from the EPA about the delay says: “EPA believes that the environmental health or safety risk addressed by this action may have a disproportionate effect on children… Any impacts on children’s health caused by the delay in the rule will be limited, because the length of the proposed stay is limited.”
This is unacceptable to moms and dads everywhere—there is no amount of time that it’s okay for our children to be exposed to dangerous air pollution from the oil and gas industry. The attitude that two years of exposure to harmful pollution is tolerable is a cynical giveaway to the oil and gas industry, which doesn’t want to make the effort to protect our children from dangerous pollution.
Now, we have the opportunity to speak up and formally comment on the EPA’s proposed two-year delay. We’ll have moms on the ground in DC on Monday testifying in person at a public hearing on this issue. But we also need your help to flood the electronic docket with written comments. We need to make one thing clear: We will not stand for any delay in the reduction of these dangerous air pollutants. Make your voice heard HERE.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that plays a major role in fueling global climate change, and it’s relatively easy for the oil and gas industry to detect and repair methane leaks. And when they fix methane leaks, they also slash emissions of carcinogenic benzene, protecting nearby communities. But industry doesn’t want to make the effort—and apparently EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt thinks that’s just fine.
Scott Pruitt’s proposal to side with polluters instead of protecting the health of our children is unacceptable. No one voted to Make America Dirty Again. (Tweet this)
We fought hard to get these protections finalized just last year. We can’t let him take them away. The EPA is currently accepting comments from Americans for a limited time.