OP-ED: Pa. has chance to reduce pollution and save lives
If you find yourself thinking the weather keeps getting more frightening, you’d be right. The frequency and severity of weather events — heat waves, floods, windstorms, wildfires, droughts, etc.-are getting worse.
By now, you’ve probably been impacted by this weather, or will be soon. Many Pennsylvania residents have suffered heart complications and strokes from intense heat, worsening symptoms of asthma from smoke and smog, Lyme disease from tick bites, and even loss of life from extreme weather. These serious health issues don’t take into account the localized health impacts experienced by those living near industrial facilities emitting toxic, climate-warming emissions.
Climate change and exposure to toxic emissions are costly, too. Flaring and venting from oil and gas facilities alone costs the United States $7.4 billion in health damages, according to published reports. The cost of our homeowners, renters, and health insurance is going to rise. Communities carry the health and economic burdens of this public health crisis, and Pennsylvania leaders can act before things get worse.
In 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a groundbreaking new rule focused on reducing methane pollution from oil and gas facilities, commonly referred to as the “Federal Methane Rule.” This rule sets the minimum standards that states must adopt to monitor and reduce methane emissions but does not limit the level of protection states can offer through their individual rules. In other words, state rules can go further than the EPA rule requires, providing an additional level of protection to residents.
Right now, methane emissions are largely unfettered. In 2023, Pennsylvania oil and gas operations emitted over 1 million metric tons of methane, equivalent to the gas use of 820,000 households, an Environmental Defense Fund analysis found. Reducing methane pollution will have a positive impact on climate change, eventually helping to make weather events less frequent and less severe.
A reduction in methane will also lower health risks for approximately 1.5 million Pennsylvanians living near oil and gas facilities, where methane’s toxic co-pollutants – volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, and radioactive materials – may lead to acute and chronic health harms. As the research shows, these health harms include a higher risk of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, heart disease and heart attacks, birth defects and preterm deliveries, mental health issues, and cancer.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is now working on the state methane plan. Adopting the minimum standards laid out in the existing federal methane rule is a meaningful first step, but going further to address the scale and urgency of the public health problem this rule seeks to solve would be even better. To achieve these ends, EHP recommends the DEP perform more inspections of well sites, require more leak monitoring, ensure quick repairs of detected leaks, and create protective standards against flaring at gas wells. EHP also advocates for the state plan to include connecting impacted residents with necessary health resources in the event they are harmed.
Finally, EHP urges the DEP to submit the final state plan to the EPA as soon as is feasible. The current administration in Washington has threatened to roll back key parts of the Federal Methane Rule, including dollars for enforcement. Pennsylvania’s rule must anticipate this undermining of protections at the federal level and be able to stand on its own.
Now more than ever, Pennsylvania must take leadership to protect its residents from the harmful impacts of methane pollution by creating strong, long-lasting methane reduction standards.
Talor Musil is field manager of the nonpartisan nonprofit Environmental Health Project, headquartered in Pittsburgh.