EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt—who, as Oklahoma Attorney General, sued the EPA fourteen times to block crucial pollution limits—has launched yet another attack on clean air and climate protections—but you have a limited period of time to fight back.
He has officially suspended vital air pollution safeguards that establish common-sense leak detection and repair requirements for new and modified oil and natural gas facilities—protecting Americans from dangerous methane, smog-forming volatile organic compounds, and toxic and carcinogenic air pollutants like benzene—for two years.
We fought hard to get these protections finalized just last year. We can't let him take them away. The EPA is currently accepting comments from Americans for a limited time. Take action today, and tell them: It's your job to protect Americans, not polluters.
Re: EPAHQOAR2010-0505; FRL-9963-40-OAR
Dear Administrator Pruitt,
I'm writing today in strong opposition to your decision to suspend vital air pollution safeguards that will reduce harmful methane, smog-forming volatile organic compounds, and toxic air pollutants like benzene from new and modified sources in the oil and natural gas sector.
This decision threatens the health and welfare of countless Americans who live in close proximity to oil and gas development by allowing thousands of tons of these harmful air pollutants to be emitted into the atmosphere. Each day this suspension is in place, the harm is compounded: more new wells are drilled and other wells subject to the standards are allowed to continue emitting harmful pollution, which cannot later be removed from the air.
These common-sense safeguards are also highly cost-effective, leveraging widely used technologies and best practices that are already required in several energy-producing states. They were also developed through extensive public input and years of agency deliberation. There is no basis for EPA to suspend these safeguards.
[Your comments here]
Please reverse this unlawful, dangerous decision, and put these crucial pollution safeguards back into action.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
