Moms Clean Air Force Has Advocated for Methane Pollution Safeguards for Over a Decade
CONTACT: DKC News, MomsCleanAirForce@dkcnews.com
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – Today, at a closed-door conference of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association in Santa Fe, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a forthcoming proposal to weaken the 2024 Oil and Gas Methane Rule, giving corporations a free pass to pollute our air and harm the health of our families. The Trump Administration has already substantially delayed the implementation and enforcement of the 2024 Methane Rule, removing requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor and detect leaks at both new and existing operations. By further undermining these critical standards, Zeldin’s EPA would exacerbate harms to communities living closest to oil and gas production and increase the exposure of children and families to dangerous air pollution for years to come.
In response, Moms Clean Air Force staff and organizers in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Colorado released the following statements:
“Any proposed rollback to the federal methane rule is a slap in the face to families who are exposed to oil and gas pollution where they live, work, and play,” says Celerah Hewes, Senior Manager for State Field Campaigns and resident of New Mexico. “For over a decade, Moms Clean Air Force has been fighting for methane protections for our families—and we were making progress. Today’s announcement from EPA is a massive blow to the efforts to safeguard our children’s health and our climate. Over 900,000 comments were submitted to the Federal Register in support of the commonsense methane pollution protections that EPA finalized in 2024, including many from the moms, dads, and caregivers with Moms Clean Air Force. Now communities across the country will once again have to show up and demand EPA provide strong federal methane pollution standards that protect families from this known public health threat and climate super pollutant. It is outrageous that we have to fight so hard just for our children’s right to breathe clean air.”
“I have witnessed firsthand the impacts the oil and gas industry has had on my community, with a well pad having been fracked in a medium density residential area of my local township,” says Vanessa Lynch, Pennsylvania Campaign Coordinator. “The well pad is located near homes, a daycare center, an assisted living facility, and a park where my children spent many of their childhood days playing in the stream and participating in recreational sports. As a frontline community member, I appreciated opportunities like EPA’s Super-Emitter program, comprehensive leak detection and repair, and equipment standards such as zero-emitting pneumatic equipment requirements for pneumatic controllers and pumps; they create a meaningful improvement for our families. It is the responsibility of EPA to establish federal regulatory certainty by creating baseline methane protection for children like mine who live and play on the frontline of this industry. In states like Pennsylvania, it is critical to our children’s future to enact meaningful oil and gas methane protections.”
“Colorado is one of the top oil-producing states in the country, and we’ve long understood the need for commonsense protections against methane pollution,” says Laurie Anderson, Colorado Field Organizer. “In 2014, Colorado became the first state in the nation to adopt methane-specific rules, and we have remained a leader in methane protections – demonstrating that states do not have to choose between protecting communities from pollution and a stable economy. The 2024 Methane Rule provides industry with regulatory certainty while also achieving significant emissions reductions. Weakening federal protections would undermine progress – leaving frontline communities similar to mine unnecessarily exposed to dangerous air pollution.”