EPA Proposes Dismantling Methane Pollution Safeguards Leaving Latino Community Health at Risk Across the Nation

Washington, D.C. ---  The Trump Administration just proposed to effectively eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations on methane pollution, which apply to the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas facilities currently operating in the United States. This proposed action would endanger the health and wellbeing of Latinx communities across the country and set our nation farther backwards in it’s urgent actions needed to combat climate change.

In response, GreenLatinos’ National Policy Director, Jessica Loya, releases the following statement:

“EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler continues to demonstrate that he is more interested in improving the profits of oil and gas polluters over the health and wellbeing of Americans. Our nation’s oil and gas industry releases over 13 million metric tons of dangerous methane pollution and the problem would most likely be exacerbated by the Trump administration’s push for the expansion of polluting oil and gas drilling across America.

The immediate impacts on health and air quality and climate change impacts exacerbated by allowing for this pollution to continue will be disproportionately felt by Latinx communities. The states with the highest number of oil wells that must comply with the methane rules, Texas (16,785) and California (8,989), also hold the largest Latino populations in the country.

These actions by the Administration are not done with the best interest of American families in mind. The time to take steps forward on climate action is now and we should not be moving backward with these reckless rollbacks. We must act to protect our communities and future generations and that starts with keeping strong federal methane standards in place.”

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GreenLatinos is a national network of Latino environmental and conservation advocates committed to addressing national, regional and local environmental, natural resources and conservation issues that significantly affect the health and welfare of the Latino community in the United States. GreenLatinos provides an inclusive table at which its members establish collaborative partnerships and networks to improve the environment; protect and promote conservation of land and other natural resources; amplify the voices of minority, low-income and tribal communities; and train, mentor, and promote the current and future generations of Latino environmentalists.