EDF Action is the advocacy partner of Environmental Defense Fund. With a dedicated team of lobbyists, political strategists and communications professionals, they build strong, bipartisan support for transformative environmental protections.
By cultivating unlikely political support and mobilizing an army of concerned citizens, EDF Action works toward revitalizing America’s fragile wetlands, keeping toxic chemicals out of homes and bodies and delivering climate change solutions big and small.
EDF Action contacted the San Miguel Times and asked for this article to published today, Monday Jan. 30, 2017.
2016 was the hottest year on record—and rising methane emissions are responsible for about a quarter of that increased warming. And in America, oil and gas companies are responsible for more methane pollution than any other industry.
Together, we worked to put in place first-ever limits on the dangerous climate pollution that the oil & gas industry is leaking, venting, and flaring on our public and tribal lands. Now, all of that is at risk.
With one simple vote, Congress could roll back these standards and permanently block the Bureau of Land Management from ever putting these protections into law again without additional congressional action. That will mean more pollution and wasted taxpayer resources.
You read that right. In their first weeks on the job since the 2016 elections, Republicans in Congress are already moving to permanently put the interests of the oil and gas industry over the interests of taxpayers.
Because these pollution standards don’t just protect our climate and our health, but nationwide, U.S. taxpayers lose about $330 million in federal royalties every year through methane leaks and intentional releases on federal public and tribal lands. That’s your money literally going up in smoke. And this Congress is moving to allow this wasteful practice to become permanent.
A change in leadership doesn’t mean a change in our nation’s values. Tell Congress: Protect our health and our wallets. Defend these crucial limits on methane pollution.
Heather Shelby
Action Network Manager
Nationwide in the United States, an estimated $330 million worth of natural gas from taxpayer and tribal lands is being wasted through leaks and the inefficient practice of venting and flaring every year. That’s enough natural gas to supply all of the homes in a city the size of Chicago for a year.
This pollution also contains methane, a harmful climate pollutant, as well as toxic and ozone-forming chemicals which increase smog and can cause cancer and respiratory diseases.
Source: https://secure2.edf.org/