By: Elizabeth Hauptman, Michigan Field Organizer, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: June 27, 2025
About: Proposed Compliance Extension on Section 111 Methane Rule
To: White House Office of Management and Budget
Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Elizabeth Hauptman. I’m a proud mom from Livingston County, Michigan, and a Field Organizer with Moms Clean Air Force. But I am here first and foremost as a mother—because this issue is deeply personal to me. My son has asthma, like so many children in Michigan and across the country. I worry every day about the air he breathes and the future he faces. I am pleading with you today—not just as an advocate, but as a mom—to keep these commonsense methane safeguards on track without delay.
Methane pollution is not an abstract problem—it’s harming real people right now, especially those living on the frontlines of oil and gas development and is the best lever we have to quickly fight climate warming. Any delay in implementing these protections means continued, unnecessary exposure to dangerous air pollutants like smog-forming volatile organic compounds and hazardous chemicals such as benzene, which is a known carcinogen and is often found alongside methane in oil and gas operations. These delays have very real, very human costs: the EPA estimates that this rule could prevent up to 1,500 premature deaths and 100,000 asthma attacks every single year. Pushing this rule back delays these avoided harms and extends suffering in our communities.
The stakes could not be higher. This rule is expected to prevent 58 million tons of methane emissions between now and 2038—a critical step in avoiding the worst effects of climate change. And the science is clear: methane is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the near term. In Michigan, we know this challenge well. In 2013 alone, Michigan’s oil and gas producers wasted nearly 20,000 metric tons of methane—the climate equivalent of emissions from over 100,000 cars.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has already revised rules to address ozone nonattainment and methane’s contribution to it. And our Attorney General has joined other states to support strong federal methane standards. Michigan is leaning forward because we know the cost of inaction. But federal backtracking threatens to undo this momentum.
And this delay isn’t even necessary. Many oil and gas companies are already complying—or actively preparing to comply—with these standards. States across the political spectrum have adopted or are incorporating these rules into their implementation plans. Delaying compliance would only reward bad actors, create market uncertainty, undercut job growth in methane mitigation technologies, and waste valuable resources. Worse, it signals disregard for the health of our families, our environment, and the climate future of communities like mine in Michigan.
So, I am asking you—as a mom of a child with asthma, as someone who wants him and every child to have a fair chance at a healthy life and safe future—please keep these protections in place and implement them without delay. Our children cannot afford to wait.
Thank you.