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My parents’ home in the Pocono Mountains where I grew up has already received what feels like triple the snowfall of a typical Pennsylvania winter. And it’s serial snowstorms such as the ones we’ve had that are just one symptom of our changing climate caused by increased greenhouse gases like methane.
Gov. Tom Wolf has acknowledged the threat of methane emissions with his draft methane emissions cap rule, but it’s not enough. While this proposal works to decrease emission leaks in extraction, it leaves a major loophole that discounts nearly half of Pennsylvania’s annual 1.1 million tons of methane emission.
The governor’s current proposal does not consider older “low-producing” wells, but it should.
In pursuit of a stable climate, this oversight allows free and legal pollution from these sites. We must take a purposeful and calculated approach to climate threats that covers as wide a span as possible for polluters. We must close this loophole in the final draft of the proposal and cut down on our methane emissions.
I urge Gov. Wolf to take this important step toward pollution reduction and a stable climate.
Allison McNeill
Stroudsburg