Action Alerts

Strong methane standards are essential to curb climate pollution

What's At Stake

Methane is the second largest contributor to the climate crisis, and it is 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Cutting methane pollution from the oil and gas industry is the fastest way to slow climate change. After years of advocacy, the Biden administration finalized a strong methane rule that will cut millions of tons of methane emissions, safeguard public health, and advance environmental justice. Send a message to thank the Biden administration for taking a critical step to cut methane pollution from oil and gas production.

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Each year, fossil fuel companies leak or deliberately vent 13 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere during oil and gas operations. Not only does methane pollution from the oil and gas industry jeopardize the continued habitability of our planet, but its extraction poisons communities. Methane is released alongside toxic pollutants such as benzene, formaldehyde, and ethylbenzene, which can cause debilitating health problems for millions of people.

So, these strong methane standards from the Biden administration are essential to curb climate pollution and better protect the health and safety of workers and communities living near fossil fuel extraction. This cost-effective rule is grounded in EPA’s longstanding authority under the Clean Air Act, and Earthjustice and our partners are prepared to defend it from unfounded industry attacks.

Tell the Biden administration that you will be there to defend this rule and will continue fighting for strong climate and health protections from the harms of fossil fuels.

Natural gas flare
Flared gas is burned off at Apache Corporations operations at the Deadwood gas plant in the Permian Basin on February 5, 2015 in Garden City, Texas. (Spencer Platt)

Delivery to the Environmental Protection Agency

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.