Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0163

To: EPA Administrator Zeldin,

It is with deep concern for the health of our communities, the safety of oil and gas industry workers, and the strength of our country’s energy security that the undersigned write to urge EPA to abandon its proposal to weaken the 2024 Methane Rule. 

These critical standards protect people working in and living closest to fossil fuel production by mitigating harmful, unnecessary exposure to dangerous air pollutants. Pollution from fossil fuel venting and flaring alone results in $7.4 billion in health damages, over 700 premature deaths, and 73,000 asthma exacerbations among children annually.

Having strong, robust safeguards that reduce methane waste is common sense. In addition to protecting public health, the 2024 EPA Methane Rule strengthens our energy security by keeping more product in pipelines and out of the atmosphere. Since the EPA stopped enforcing oil and gas methane regulations, the fossil fuel industry leaked, vented, or flared $7 billion-worth of gas that would have otherwise gone to consumers. Reducing methane pollution can also be an economic gain as the methane mitigation is a growing American industry that creates well-paying jobs across the country.

We also can’t let low-producing well owners off the hook. More than half (almost 60%) of all methane emissions come from low-producing, high polluting oil and gas wells, the overwhelming majority of which are owned by large, well-resourced companies, not “moms and pops.” Maintaining reasonable standards for low-producing wells significantly decreases the amount of methane and harmful co-pollutants that will be emitted into the air.

Communities across the country – our families, children, workers and businesses – all want the same thing: to breathe clean air and foster a healthy future for the next generation. In order to do that, we need to keep strong methane pollution protections in place.

We call on EPA Administrator Zeldin to prioritize the health and safety of communities across the U.S. and rescind its proposal to weaken the 2024 Methane Rule. The Environmental Protection Agency has a statutory obligation to protect our nation's air quality. We can’t afford to roll back strong methane pollution protections.