FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Contact: Jonathon Berman, jonathon.berman@sierraclub.org
Justin Wasser, jwasser@earthworks.org
Wheeler Puts Ohio Communities at Risk with Proposal to Give Oil and Gas Industry a Free Pass for Methane Pollution
Washington, DC -- Today, former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler’s EPA released a proposal to ignore the vast majority of climate pollution from new oil and gas operations by eliminating safeguards that limit methane emissions. Methane is a greenhouse gas 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide during the time it remains in the atmosphere.
This is at least the seventh separate attempt by the Trump administration to roll back critical EPA safeguards against oil and gas pollution. This latest proposal would not only strip away all methane protections for the oil and gas industry, but would also leave large segments of the industry entirely uncontrolled, and thus free to emit limitless amounts of any pollutant.
“Ohio communities are already suffering from dangerous air pollution from fracking, and now Trump and Wheeler want to exacerbate the problem by rolling back commonsense standards to limit methane emissions,” said Sierra Club Organizing Representative Cheryl Johncox. “We will continue to fight back against this Trump administration’s efforts to prioritize corporate polluter profits over our climate and our families’ health.”
“The proposed elimination of critical national safeguards against oil and gas methane pollution is reckless, and will impact over 3.25 million Ohioans living within a half-mile of oil and gas facilities and every resident of the state already living with worsening impacts of the climate crisis,” said Leann Leiter, Field Advocate at Earthworks. “Earthworks has documented first hand what an unregulated industry will do to communities and climate. Our optical gas imaging camera allows us to document the invisible oil and gas air pollution that has been spewing for decades. Without strong national safeguards, Governor DeWine must protect the people of Ohio with urgently-needed state-level methane rules.”
For more information:
See footage of Ohio’s pollution: bit.ly/CEP-OH
See where oil and gas pollution threatens the most Ohioans: https://oilandgasthreatmap.com/threat-map/ohio/
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