Chasing Down Fugitive Gases

 

Last November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a supplemental proposal to “secure major climate and health benefits for all Americans by reducing emissions of methane and other harmful air pollution from both new and existing oil and gas operations.”

Peer-reviewed research conducted in Pennsylvania — the nation’s second largest methane gas producer — indicates that Pennsylvanians will likely see some of the greatest health benefits if the EPA adopts the strictest possible health-protective rules and standards.

Last week, along with a large number of doctors, nurses, and other concerned health professionals from Pennsylvania and other states across the country, I participated in a public hearing held by the EPA about the new proposal. Here is my testimony:

My name is Dr. Edward Ketyer. I am a pediatrician residing and working in Washington County — the most heavily fracked county in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale and home to thousands of conventional and unconventional oil and gas wells.

I am a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change.

I also serve as the medical advisor for Environmental Health Project, a non-profit, public health organization helping residents understand and mitigate threats from unconventional shale gas development in Pennsylvania and other states and countries.

And I am the President of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania.

Above all, I am a husband, a father, and like all of you, a passenger on this shining ball of blue who supports the EPA’s proposal to update, strengthen, and expand federal rules to find and fix all leaks of methane and other harmful air pollution from new and existing oil and gas operations. Along with my family and my collegues, I am grateful that the agency’s proposals will help secure major climate and health benefits for all Americans. 

Let me address the health reasons for why EPA’s proposals must be adopted:

We now know beyond a reasonable doubt that extracting and burning fossil fuels like oil and gas, which Pennsylvanians have been doing for more than 160 years, is inherently dirty and dangerous, and pours greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming and ensuring climate catastrophe in our children’s lifetimes. 

We also know that leaks of methane occur accidentally AND intentionally at every site of oil and gas infrastructure, in amounts that far exceed industry reporting and government estimates.

The health risks associated with exposure to fugitive emissions from oil and gas infrastructure — old and new — are too numerous and too serious to ignore any longer.

Physicians for Social Responsibility has helped assemble a Compendium that contains more than 2,000 peer-reviewed studies, government reports, and media investigations. The vast majority — more than 90% — show beyond a reasonable doubt that fracking scars the landscape and degrades the environment. It pollutes the air, water, and soil we all share, threatens the health of wildlife, aquatic creatures, farm animals, and family pets, and accelerates global warming. And we now know, beyond a reasonable doubt, that in addition to fugitive methane, fracking releases endocrine-disrupting, cancer-causing, life-shortening chemicals, volatile fumes, and radioactive particles that can make people who live nearby sick. 

A large and growing body of research shows increases in reproductive harms and poor pregnancy outcomes, harms to the growth and development of infants and young children, worse heart disease in adults, worse asthma in children, more stress and mental illness, and potentially more rare cancers in children, including leukemia and possibly Ewing sarcoma.

EPA must protect the health of Americans by protecting the health of the environment, and it must do so clearly, without feeling the need to appease an irresponsible and amoral industry that is only making our current climate crisis worse.

For this reason, I support EPA’s efforts and urge you to continue pushing for the strongest possible protections to our health and communities — for me, for you, and for the benefit of our children.

 

Watch Tuesday night’s “Let’s Talk Methane Webinar” hosted by PennEnvironment here. My short presentation begins at the 5:00 mark.

The EPA will be accepting written comments on the supplemental proposal until February 13, 2023.

 

source https://www.thepediablog.com/2023/01/19/chasing-down-fugitive-gases/