|
EPA Announces Methane Rules to Care for Communities
and Climate
On Saturday, Dec. 2, at the UN COP meeting in Dubai, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released final rules to cut methane and other harmful pollutants from oil and gas operations throughout the United States.
When implemented and enforced, these rules will keep the U.S. on track to meet its global promise of reducing methane 30% by 2030 and 80% by 2038!
Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) supports the EPA rules to reduce methane pollution from oil and gas. This is an important step for the health of frontline communities, people of color, those who are most vulnerable to health effects of pollution and for our sacred creation and climate.
“People of faith and conscience in New Mexico and El Paso Interfaith Power & Light have worked to support strong EPA methane rules for nearly a decade. After countless hearings, faith letters, and public comments we are grateful for the ethical and moral leadership the EPA is taking. Ove the years alarm and concern for community health, environmental justice, and caring for our sacred climate have grown and we must continue to act." said Sister Joan Brown, osf, Executive Director, Interfaith Power & Light New Mexico & El Paso.,.
Peer-reviewed science indicates that living within half-a-mile of oil and gas production facilities is clearly correlated with negative health impacts including cancer, respiratory illness, fetal defects, blood disorders, and neurological problems. In New Mexico studies estimate that 144,377 New Mexicans, including 38,749 children, reside near or attend schools or daycares within a ½-mile radius of active oil and gas operations.
“I really think that it can’t be understated just how much of a health risk these things pose when they’re close to schools, or they’re close to homes, and that distance really does make a difference in what health impacts folks are dealing with,”Kayley Shoup, an organizer with of the frontline community based, Citizens Caring for the Future, with whom IPL New Mexico-El Paso works in solidarity with.
The strengthened rules seek to
- Ensure frequent leak detection and repair inspections at all wells, including regular monitoring of small, leak-prone wells.
- Stop the wasteful and polluting practice of routine flaring of associated gas from oil wells.
- Allow community monitoring data collected from frontline communities and other third parties to assist EPA in the implementation and enforcement of the methane safeguards.
- Require monitoring and plugging of abandoned wells that are leaking methane.
See additional informaton in our website blog
| 
