By: Rachel Meyer, Ohio River Valley Field Organizer, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: June 30, 2025
About: Support of a strong and durable methane state plan
To: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
My name is Rachel Meyer and I am the Ohio River Valley Field Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. I live in Independence Township, Beaver County. Within three miles of my family’s home, there is a natural gas compressor station and eight unconventional well pads each with multiple wells. Where there are oil and gas operations, you can find methane leaking along with volatile organic compounds. VOCs such as benzene are harmful to health and can contribute to ground level ozone or smog that damages lungs and can trigger asthma attacks. I have had days where my own asthma has been aggravated for no other attributable reason than pollution escaping from these facilities. This is where my five year old daughter lives, learns, and plays. I worry about the long term effects on her health and developing lungs.
Far too many Pennsylvania families like mine are surrounded by polluting oil and gas infrastructure. Air pollution from the oil and gas industry can cause respiratory diseases, asthma attacks, increased hospitalizations, reproductive problems, blood disorders, neurological problems, and cancer. We must protect children from exposure to oil and gas pollution.
Reducing methane escaping from oil and gas infrastructure is also necessary for slowing climate change. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas -- 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere. It is responsible for 25% of the man-made global warming we are experiencing today.
A strong majority of Pennsylvanians support action on climate. Even in Pennsylvania, we see the negative impact climate change is already having. Storms are more severe, heat waves more deadly, and now wildfire smoke is even becoming a regular threat. We must adopt an effective plan to reduce methane pollution and slow the rate of climate change in order to protect our children.
In 2023, Pennsylvania’s oil and gas operations emitted over 1 million metric tons (MMT) of methane. That’s the same amount of climate pollution as 23 coal plants or 21 million vehicles. Of all the states in the nation, only Texas produces more natural gas than Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania’s methane-leaking natural gas infrastructure is also tied to the petrochemical industry’s push to find uses for this resource beyond energy production and heating. For example, as a result of Shell’s petrochemical facility for making plastic now operating in Beaver County, we have more well pads and expanding gas processing plants where ethane is separated from the methane and other components of natural gas to be sent to make plastic. All of this additional infrastructure creates more pathways for methane and health-harming VOC’s to pollute our air.
With all of this production, Pennsylvania has a responsibility to step up and be a national leader in reducing harmful methane and volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution from existing oil and gas infrastructure. In addition, at this time, multiple clean air protections are being eliminated at the federal level making it even more important for Pennsylvania to secure durable protections now.
In order to achieve a more protective plan, we urge the Pennsylvania DEP to include separators in the definition of complex well sites, require quarterly leak detection at all well sites, and supplement the Super Emitter Program to engage frontline residents more readily.
It is crucial that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection finalize the most durable and protective state plan for methane in order to reduce pollution and protect the climate. For children like my daughter, their health and well-being depend on it.
Thank you