• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Moms Clean Air Force

Fighting for Our Kids' Health

  • Take Action
    • Right Now
      • Sign a Petition
      • Register to Vote
      • Volunteer for Clean Air
      • Clean Air Action Guide
    • Attend an Event
      • Event Calendar
      • Forum on Maternal & Child Health in a Dangerous Climate
    • En Español
      • EcoMadres
    • Support Moms
      • Donate
  • What We Work On
    • Moms Priorities
      • EPA Work
      • Legislation We Support
      • Justice in Every Breath
      • Moms & Mayors
      • EcoMadres
    • Air Pollution
      • Cars and Trucks
      • Electric School Buses
      • Maternal Health
      • Mercury
      • Ozone Pollution
      • Soot Pollution
    • Climate Change
      • Carbon Pollution
      • Clean Energy
      • Extreme Weather
      • Mental Health
      • Methane
    • Plastics and Petrochemicals
      • “Advanced Recycling”
      • Petrochemical Pollution
      • Waste Incineration
    • Toxic Chemicals
      • Chemical Safety
      • Schools and Playgrounds
      • Vinyl Chloride
  • Where We Work
    • State Chapters
      • Arizona
      • California
      • Colorado
      • Florida
      • Georgia
      • Illinois
      • Iowa
      • Louisiana
      • Maryland
      • Michigan
      • Montana
      • Nevada
      • New Hampshire
      • New Jersey
      • New Mexico
      • New York
      • North Carolina
      • Ohio
      • Pennsylvania
      • Tennessee
      • Texas
      • Virginia
      • Washington
      • Washington, DC
      • West Virginia
      • Wisconsin
  • Who We Are
    • Mission

      We are a community of over 1.5 million parents united against air and climate pollution to protect our children’s health.

      • Learn More
    • Our Team
      • National Team
      • Field Organizers
      • Job Openings
    • Learn More
      • Our Mission
      • Legislation We Support
      • Notable Achievements
      • 2024 Annual Report
      • Newsletter Archive
    • Programs
      • EcoMadres
      • Community Health Justice
      • Indigenous Communities
    • Get in Touch
      • Contact Us
      • Media Inquiries
  • Articles
    • All Articles
      • Topics
        • Plastics and Petrochemicals
        • Mom Detective
        • Air Pollution
        • Climate Change
        • Toxic Chemicals
    • Mental Health and Climate Change: Maintaining Well-Being When Pollution Protections Are Under Attack
      #MomsSummerofAction: Tell EPA to Keep Their Hands Off Climate Pollution Limits for Power Plants
      Moms’ Stephanie Reese on Juneteenth and EPA in The New Lede
      The Big Brutal Bill Puts Our Children’s Health in Jeopardy
  • Resources
  • Press
    • Media Contact

      For all urgent press inquiries, please contact DKC News

      • MomsCleanAirForce@dkcnews.com
    • Moms in the Media
      • Press Releases
      • News Stories
      • Moms Make News Archives
  • Donate

FacebookTwitterinstagram

  • Take Action
  • Join the Force
  • Donate
Resource Library / Climate Change / Methane

Testimony: Patrice Tomcik, 2021, Providing Information to EPA on the Upcoming Oil and Natural Gas Methane Rule

Testimony

email Email Linkfacebook Share on Facebooktwitter Share on X

By: Patrice Tomcik, National Field Manager, Moms Clean Air Force

Date: June 17, 2021

About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0295

To: Environmental Protection Agency

Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to give comments today. My name is Patrice Tomcik and I am the mother of two boys living in the town of Gibsonia located in Southwest Pennsylvania on top of the Marcellus Shale. I am a National Field Manager and Oil & Gas Specialist for Moms Clean Air Force – a community of over 1 million moms and dads nationwide united against air pollution and climate change to protect our children’s health. We envision a safe, stable and equitable future where all children breathe clean air. I urge the Environmental Protection Agency to cut oil and gas methane pollution 65% by 2025 (from 2012 levels) to protect children’s health and their futures.

While we are all vulnerable to air pollution and climate change, certain populations are affected more such as children, those with underlying medical conditions, low-income communities, as well as Black, Latino, and Indigenous people. Those who live the closest to polluting sources such as oil and gas operations are impacted the most.
In the US, 12.6 million people live within a half mile of oil and gas operations and 2.9 million children go to school within a half mile of oil and gas operations that puts their health at risk.

My children attend the Mars Area School District where there are six unconventional well pads with multiple gas wells and a vast spider web network of pipelines. The closest gas wells that have been fracked are about a half mile away from my children’s 5-school campus which puts my sons and 3,200 students' health at risk due to the potential exposure to harmful air pollution when they attend school or play outdoor sports.

Oil and gas operations emit climate warming methane and harmful volatile organic compounds such as benzene that can affect lung development in children and increases the risk of cancer, immune system damage, and developmental problems. Every day I send my children to school, I fear for their health, especially my youngest who is a cancer survivor and is now immune compromised. My children need strong and comprehensive pollution protections.

We can reduce methane and the accompanying harmful pollutants by using monthly leak detection and repair inspection programs, reducing flaring and venting, and using zero bleed pneumatic controllers. Quickly and significantly reducing methane pollution is one of the most important opportunities we have to slow the rate of climate change now.

Climate change is a health crisis that many families across the nation are experiencing now with more wildfires and intense heat waves that contribute to respiratory problems, asthma attacks, worsened allergies that leave children gasping for a breath of clean air.

In my state of Pennsylvania, we are seeing climate change contribute to our warmer winters resulting in a drastic increase of the tick populations and increase in Lyme disease cases. I have twelve family members and friends who have been treated for Lyme disease in the past 5 years, including my husband. The sudden explosion of this disease is an indication of what’s to come with insect-borne diseases if we don’t take meaningful action to reduce climate-warming methane pollution.

Prioritizing input to the methane rule-making from environmental justice and frontline communities is imperative as they have historically shouldered an outsized burden from the impacts of air pollution and the climate crisis. We need environmental justice. We need climate justice.

Parents can’t control the air our children breathe; we depend on the people at the EPA do their jobs and protect them. Children all across the country—including my own—are depending on EPA and the Biden administration to move swiftly with a protective rule that could cut methane pollution 65% by 2025. Every child has the right to breathe clean air, and the right to a stable climate.
Thank you

Take Action on this Issue

Join the force and stay updated on opportunities to take action:

Donate

Footer

Moms Clean Air Force ®

We are a community of 1.5 million moms and dads united against air pollution – including the urgent crisis of our changing climate – to protect our children’s health.

Areas of Focus

  • Air Pollution
  • Climate Change
  • Toxic Chemicals

FacebookTwitterinstagram

© 2025 Moms Clean Air Force
All rights reserved

Privacy Policy