Environmental, health and frontline advocates in Colorado want President Biden to take immediate action on methane pollution.

They rallied Thursday at the EPA’s Regional Denver Office as part of a nationwide effort to push for more regulation of the oil and gas industry’s methane pollution.

In 2021, the EPA proposed a draft rule to cut methane and other harmful pollutants from U.S. oil and gas operations. The draft release was followed by a surge of public comments, urging the EPA to address “critical gaps” in the proposal, according to Moms Clean Air Force and GreenLatinos.

The White House is reviewing the updated rule and supporters of methane regulation are calling on Biden to publish it quickly.

Patricia Garcia-Nelson, GreenLatinos’ Colorado fossil fuel just transition advocate, said environmental proponents will hold the administration accountable.

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“The EPA and the Biden administration have a real chance to make a difference,” Garcia-Nelson said. “Increasing community air monitoring, accepting those results and integrating those really would change the game.”

Garcia-Nelson said she became an activist when a fracking site opened behind her son’s school.

Another activist at the rally, Howard Goldman of Fort Collins, once an environmental lawyer, said he was rallying for the safety of the next generation.

“I thought when we passed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, we were on the right track to doing something that would be helpful and save my grandchildren,” Goldman said. “I can’t believe how insane the corporate entities are that are pushing fossil fuels.”

Garcia-Nelson called out the oil and gas industries for conflicting messages.

“At the same time (oil and gas companies) are talking about how they have the newest and greatest and safest technology, they’re also saying any new regulations are going to kill the industry,” Nelson-Garcia said. “Are they a struggling industry or are they cutting edge?”

Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) President and CEO Dan Haley disagreed with the activists, saying their goal would harm vulnerable people.

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“Family budgets in Colorado are already strained by rising prices and inflation,” Haley said. “These ban-fracking groups want to end domestic energy production, which would only further hurt the most vulnerable.”

According to a COGA release, methane emissions dropped 72% between 2015 and 2022 across Colorado’s Front Range.

“Colorado’s oil and natural gas workers have innovated and cut our methane emissions in half,” Haley said. “These same groups were silent when President Biden pushed (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and Russia, who don’t share our environmental standards.”

A Denver EPA spokesperson responded to the rally by saying the organization is delivering on Biden’s commitment to combat the climate crisis. The spokesperson said EPA has “finalized strong rules to phase down super-pollutant HFCs (potent greenhouse gases), and (will establish) the strongest ever light-duty vehicle emissions standards in U.S. history.”

“We will continue to move aggressively to advance ambitious proposals…that protect people and the planet,” the spokesperson said.

“We are working expeditiously to craft rules in a way that follows the best available science, follows the law and will stand the test of time.”

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