Vanessa Lynch: Celebrating EPA's new oil and gas safeguards

Clean air advocates — and those of us living in front-line oil and gas communities — have something to celebrate as we start a new year. New Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safeguards are poised to significantly slash methane pollution from the oil and gas industry. Parents across Pennsylvania are ecstatic. President Biden and the EPA have taken bold action to cut climate warming methane pollution and protect the health of our children.

In my community there is a well pad near our local park where children play every day, an assisted living facility with a vulnerable population and many homes. With more than 73,000 active oil and gas wells in the commonwealth, 1.2 million people in Pennsylvania live within a half mile of an oil and gas facility — including 190,000 people where I live in Allegheny County. Methane pollution safeguards are necessary to protect our health.

Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a potent and proven greenhouse gas that has more than 80 times the climate warming power of carbon dioxide. Cutting methane is inarguably one of the best levers we have to slow the warming that is causing climate change and slow its devastating impact.

While methane impacts our climate, the “co-pollutants” released with oil and gas air pollution, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), can cause serious health impacts as well. These co-pollutants are extracted and transported along with methane, and leak into communities during the process. VOCs are known to cause cancer, increase asthma and respiratory difficulties, can lead to preterm birth and low birth weight, negatively impact heart health, and contribute to the formation of smog.

EPA’s methane rule provides strong protections for families living in the commonwealth. It sets standards for zero-polluting equipment and ensures all sites are subject to regular inspections to detect and repair leaks; this includes lower-producing wells that are responsible for as much as half of methane emissions from oil and gas operations. Importantly for families living near oil and gas, it establishes a Super Emitter Program that will enable certified third parties, including environmental groups, to detect and report large methane releases from oil and gas sites and require that communities be informed in a timely manner so they can take action to protect their health.

With the finalization of the EPA methane rule, Pennsylvania must now decide how to implement and enforce these critical protections. We are looking to Gov. Josh Shapiro to swiftly enact the strongest possible safeguards, and are encouraged to know that efforts to adopt state methane rules are already underway.

As the second largest natural gas producer in the country, experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of tons of methane are released in Pennsylvania every single year, along with large amounts of other hazardous air pollutants. Frontline communities have waited far too long for robust safeguards — we need our governor to act quickly to deliver these critical protections now. As we joyfully celebrate this holiday season and welcome 2024, our sense of purpose and hope for clean air for our families is our guiding star.

Vanessa Lynch is a field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force.