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180+ Infrared Videos Show Methane Pollution All Across America
24
February, 22016
Just
as the worst methane leak in California’s history is sealed and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledged that America
pollutes much more methane than previously estimated, Earthworks—the
group that filmed the videos revealing the scope of the methane
disaster in Los Angeles County—released a map of 180+ infrared
videos of oil and gas methane pollution events across the country.
EARTHWORKS
The map, created with the help of FracTracker Alliance, includes two new videos that epitomize the national methane pollution problem.
The first is of a well near Longmont, Colorado:
The second one is of a massive pipeline blowdown in North Dakota’s Bakken shale region:
“In
November of 2012, the voters in Longmont banned fracking to protect
our health, safety and wellbeing, especially because of air
pollution,” said Kaye Fissinger, president of Our Longmont.
“The
air we breathe in Longmont is still subject to ‘toxic trespass’
from extreme extraction in communities nearby. It’s long past time
for government to stop tinkering around the edges and genuinely
address the ever-growing damage that fracking and drilling inflict.”
“For
the past eight years I have witnessed the rapid increase of oil and
gas industrialization and the environmental destruction that comes
with it,” said Lisa DeVille of Dakota Resource Council and the
Three Affiliated Tribes. “Finally we can see the air pollution
that’s all around us. We are concerned about the harmful health and
environmental impacts of methane and other air pollutants released
from well sites. This is an unmeasurable cost to tribal members on
Ft. Berthold and those downwind. We value our health and our lands.”
“After
crisscrossing the country for more than a year collecting these
videos, we’ve learned oil and gas air pollution is inevitably
associated with oil and gas development,” said Bruce Baizel,
Earthworks energy program director. “These videos show we need
strong state and federal rules for all new and and existing sources
of this pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency in particular
needs to propose rules covering existing pollution sources to
accompany their proposal to cut pollution from new oil and gas
facilities.”
The
map comes on the heels of the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to
cut methane pollution from oil and gas development on public lands
from new and existing sources. Late last year the U.S. EPA proposed
rules to cut methane pollution from new and modified oil and gas
facilities. If the EPA does not begin a new rulemaking to address
existing sources of air pollution, communities living next to this
invisible oil and gas pollution will be left to breathe dirty air.
Earlier this week in a draft, the EPA revised its estimate of
U.S. oil and gas methane pollution upward by more than 25
percent.
“Infrared
videos allow us to see the magnitude of EPA’s draft Greenhouse Gas
Inventory revision in black and white. Oil and gas methane pollution
is more severe than previously thought, and more widespread,” said
Lauren Pagel, Earthworks’ policy director. “We need EPA to step
up and set standards for oil and gas climate pollution from all
facilities. But frankly the best way to eliminate this pollution is
to keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground.”
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