Today, joint Congressional Review Act resolutions were introduced in the U.S. House and Senate that would rescind an outcomes-based methane pollution fee designed to incentivize large oil and gas operations to install readily available and cost-effective innovations to plug natural gas leaks and meet industry-set goals for capturing wasteful methane emissions.
Over 17.2 million people in the United States, including 3.2 million children nationwide, live within the half-mile health threat radius of active oil and gas production, where unplugged leaks and other wasteful practices expose children and families to air polluted with methane and associated toxic pollutants. Medical research links living in proximity to natural gas development and methane production to birth defects of the brain, spine, and spinal cord;[1],[2] to lower birth weight[3], which is the second leading cause of death for newly born babies and infants;[4] and to other health harms including asthma, cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease, and cancer. It is estimated that oil and gas operations across the United States are emitting more than 6 million tons per year of methane, which amounts to $1 billion in lost commercial value for energy producers.
In response to these resolutions, EEN President & CEO Rev. Dr. Jessica Moerman issued the following statement:
“In a time of rising energy demand and declining health, we need clean, abundant energy. The methane 'waste emissions charge' on natural gas leaks will deliver just that, ensuring more of our precious energy resources make it to market to heat our homes and power our lives, while less are allowed to leak and pollute our air. As pro-life evangelicals dedicated to protecting God’s creation and defending the life of all God’s children, we believe rolling back this commonsense pollution fee is a shortsighted approach that puts a powerful market-based tool on the shelf that would otherwise advance the Trump Administration's goal to make America’s energy resources and our air the cleanest in the world.
“The methane waste emissions fee, which applies only to the largest oil and gas companies and is an outcomes-based incentive that ends once leaks are plugged, encourages our energy producers to put into place readily available gas leak prevention innovations. These innovations support wise stewardship of our natural gas resources and will make American natural gas more competitive in world markets that increasingly favor the cleanest energy sources. They are also critical to defending the health of our children here at home. Additionally, the methane waste charge is estimated to raise billions in revenue for American taxpayers without increasing household energy costs. To truly unleash American energy dominance, we need to outcompete the rest of the world as the foremost leader in the cleanest energy production. A market-based methane waste emissions charge is a critical incentive to empower the United States to claim and keep that title.”
[1] Lisa M. McKenzie, Ruixin Guo, Roxana Z. Witter, David A. Savitz, Lee S. Newman, and John L. Adgate, Birth Outcomes and Maternal Residential Proximity to Natural Gas Development in Rural Colorado, Environmental Health Perspectives doi:10.1289/ehp.1306722.
[2] Casey J.A., et al., “The association between natural gas well activity and specific congenital anomalies in Oklahoma, 1997-2009,” Environment International, Volume 122, January 2019, 381-388, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018317999?via=ihub
[3] Stacy SL, Brink LL, Larkin JC, Sadovsky Y, Goldstein BD, Pitt BR, et al. (2015) Perinatal Outcomes and Unconventional Natural Gas Operations in Southwest Pennsylvania. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0126425. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0126425.
[4] Jiaquan Xu, M.D., Sherry L. Murphy, B.S., Kenneth D. Kochanek, M.A., and Elizabeth Arias, Ph.D. Mortality in the United States, 2021. NCHS Data Brief No. 456, December 2022
