FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

January 19, 2016 

Contact: Sam Bernhardt, Food & Water Watch, 267-428-1903

Tracy Carluccio, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, 215-369-1188 x104

Karen Feridun, Berks Gas Truth, 610-678-7726

Gov. Wolf’s New Methane Rules Fall Short of Protecting Pennsylvania from Fracking

Governor’s Proposed Methane Regulations Would Fail to Clean Up Dirty Fracking Industry, Continue State on Dangerous Path

Harrisburg, PA – “Gov. Wolf’s newly announced methane regulations truly put lipstick on a pig,” said Karen Feridun from Berks Gas Truth, speaking on behalf of Pennsylvanians Against Fracking. “Leaks occur at every step of the life cycle of natural gas. The climate stakes couldn’t be higher: methane is 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over 20 years. Banning fracking is the most powerful step Pennsylvania can take to act as a leader on climate change.

“By taking that important step, the state can get down to business managing the hundreds of thousands of orphaned and abandoned wells a Princeton researcher called ‘super-emitters’ of methane [1]. The regulations we need are the ones that stop the bleeding, not those that make it worse.”

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About Pennsylvanians Against Fracking

Pennsylvanians Against Fracking is a statewide coalition of organizations, institutions, and businesses calling for a halt to fracking in the Commonwealth. Learn more about Pennsylvanians Against Fracking at paagainstfracking.org.

[1] Kang, M. Direct measurements of methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania. PNAS 2014 111 (51) 18173-18177