Support New Rule to Crack Down on Methane Emitters—By January 14

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

This past summer alone, 1 in 3 Americans lived in a county that was hit by a weather disaster.¹

The climate crisis is supercharging storms, fires, hurricanes and more — and one of the most important things we can do to curb it is to comprehensively tackle methane pollution, the second-largest contributor to climate change.²

And right now, we have the chance to do just this.

As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accepts public comments on a newly proposed Clean Air Act rule that would crack down on oil and gas companies leaking methane into our atmosphere, we need to make our voices heard. Add your name in support of these critical new regulations by Jan. 14 at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=48181.

Climate scientists say ratcheting down emissions from methane is a critical piece of the global warming puzzle. This especially potent greenhouse gas traps more than 85 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over the course of two decades.³

We can no longer afford to give methane polluters a free pass to damage our environment and our health. Holding oil and gas companies accountable for the methane they leak into our atmosphere would be a huge victory for our country and our planet.

Tell the EPA: Stop letting polluters leak methane into our atmosphere.

President Biden told delegates at COP26 in Glasgow that cutting methane emissions as quickly as possible is essential to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — which experts warn we must do in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change. He also committed to reducing America’s methane by 30% by 2030 by signing the Global Methane Pledge.⁴

To make good on the president’s word and to avoid another year in which nearly 65% of Americans lived in places that experienced a multiday heatwave, we need to take bold action to reduce planet-warming methane emissions from existing oil and gas operations.⁵

Send your public comment to the EPA today urging it to protect our planet from dangerous methane leaks.

1. Sarah Kaplan and Andrew Ba Tran, “Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster this summer,” The Washington Post, September 4, 2021.
2. “Methane Tracker 2021,” IEA, January 2021.
3. Gayathri Vaidyanathan, “How Bad of a Greenhouse Gas Is Methane?,” ClimateWire, December 22, 2015.
4. Sarah Kaplan and Andrew Ba Tran, “Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster this summer,” The Washington Post, September 4, 2021.
5. Sarah Kaplan and Andrew Ba Tran, “Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster this summer,” The Washington Post, September 4, 2021.