DEADLINE
December 15Label your comments with the Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0483-0005
Comment Online HERE
Click on the “Comment Now!” button at the top right of the page, and follow the instructions for submitting your comments.
Comment by Email to
a-and-r [email protected]
Include Docket ID number in the subject line of the message.
Methane Madness!
Once again, the Trump administration is putting oil and gas industry profits ahead of our health in an EPA proposal that further weakens the 2015 Methane Rule. This is critical because 90% of our public lands managed by the BLM are open for oil and gas leasing.
Methane is bad news. This proposal would:
- Remove protections that mandated the capture of harmful methane emissions from natural gas production.
- Allow the release of 380,000 additional tons of methane and 100,000 tons of volatile organic compounds over the next six years.
- Increase waste and reduce federal and state revenues from oil and gas.
THE GOOD NEWS
We can speak out and EPA must analyze the comments at the end of the comment period before finalizing the proposal.Key Talking Points
- Methane accounts for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and has more than 80 times the heat-trapping potential of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it escapes into the atmosphere.
- New data shows methane emissions are 60% higher than EPA estimates and voluntary efforts are not enough to address the problem.
- We must demand that the EPA decrease allowed methane release, increase the frequency of monitoring and inspection, reduce the time allowed for repair of leaks, and extend these requirements to oil wells that co-produce natural gas.
Resources
Contact your Senator today and tell them to oppose the Emery County Public Lands Management Act and any efforts to attach it to any other legislation.
Utah Legislators at it Again!
Utah’s Senator Orrin Hatch, who instigated and celebrated the illegal reduction of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments, has introduced legislation in Emery County, UT (S.2908) that enshrines motorized recreation and undermines existing wild land protections.
Ignoring input from conservation groups, S.2908 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing that:
- Does not protect key, intact, wild landscapes as wilderness, leaving 900,000 acres of BLM land unprotected. And the lands it designates are already protected as Wilderness Study Areas or Natural Areas. There is no conservation gain.
- Neglects critically important lands in Labyrinth Canyon, Muddy Creek, and the San Rafael Badlands (a rugged landscape full of archaeological sites).
- Rolls back existing WSA protections to open up coal mining in the Book Cliffs.
- Hands over control of nearly 10,000 acres of high-value federal public lands to the State of Utah for expansion of Goblin Valley State Park.
- Allows Utah to continue its federal court litigation seeking highway rights-of-way through designated wilderness, instead of resolving RS 2477 issues.
Speak out today to protect these iconic lands.
Contact Congress and urge them to keep the Roadless Rule intact!
Roadless Rule Attacks Continue
Protecting nearly 60 million acres of undeveloped National Forest System lands, the Roadless Rule virtually ended logging, roadbuilding, and extractive activities on the wildest remaining lands in our national forests.
This legislation preserves precious undeveloped lands and watersheds that provide 29 million people with drinking water.
Yet, the Department of Agriculture, Congress, and individual states are hell bent on weakening this landmark law.
Defending the Roadless Rule
- Protects some of last remaining wildlands, including the oldest and largest old-growth forests in the country (Alaska’s Tongass National Forest!).
- Helps to prevent significant habitat loss for thousands of plants, wildlife and fish, including 2,100 sensitive, threatened or endangered species.
- Keeps our streams and rivers clean of sediment overload caused by erosion and runoff from roads.
- Allows natural ecosystems to adapt to climate change and provides refuge for plants and animals pushed out of damaged landscapes.
- Safeguards forests that draw essential commercial industries, like tourism, recreation and fishing to neighboring and regional areas.
As advocates of unspoiled wildlands and defenders of keeping public lands in public hands, we must help defend the Roadless Rule!
More information
- "Roadless Rule Under Attack" Fall 2018 Broadsides
- Roadless Rule background and timeline
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Help us protect our wild places and our planet.
Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
P.O. Box 2924 - Durango, CO 81302
Visit us at greatoldbroads.org - Email Us or call 970-385-9577
