Let’s start with the basics:
- The United States Environmental Protection Agency currently has guidelines that allow states to control emissions from the oil and natural gas industry.
- The oil and gas industry is the largest single industrial source of dangerous chemicals in smog and major contributors to emissions of greenhouse gases.
- The deadly duo of Trump/Pruitt wants to get rid of those guidelines.
- With five refinery communities in the Bay Area plus the traffic we all love so well, oil and gas industry emissions affect our health, and the health of those we love, every single day.
- The public has until April 23, 2018 to comment on the proposed withdrawal of the guidelines.
These guidelines gives states non-binding “control techniques guidelines” (CTG) with information on recommended techniques for emissions by the oil and gas sector, with leeway for states to choose other techniques if they prefer. However, if there are ozone smog problems, when EPA issues a CTG, under the Clean Air Act a state must revise its clean air plans to require “reasonably available control technology” for oil and gas industry equipment. The EPA estimates that the guideline has the potential for annual pollution reductions of over 64,000 tons of volatile organic compounds, which create smog; nearly 200,000 tons of the greenhouse gas methane; and 2,400 tons of other hazardous air pollutants that can cause serious health effects. Without the CTG, oil and gas company equipment could spew pollutants even where there are reasonably available ways to control the pollution.
In other words: get rid of the guidelines, unnecessarily increase air pollution and increase the harm to our health and the health of our environment.
Submit comments here by April 23, 2018, 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time (8:59 PM in California). More info, including talking points, here; more info, including a link to other people’s comments, here.
Want to do more environmental action?
- Tell our Senators: Time for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to Go!
- Preserve wildlife and wild lands while you oppose the Wall!
