Latino Leaders Stand Up for Clean Air

*According to the National Hispanic Medical Association “As of 2008, 4.7 million Hispanics had been diagnosed with asthma. In their lifetime, Latinos are three times more likely to die from asthma than other racial or ethnic groups.” This is because Latinos disproportionately live in areas with high pollutants in the air. The thing is, we’re not powerless. Read this. VL


NRDC small logoBy Analisa Freitas, National Resources Defense Council

I’ve talked a lot about the Clean Power Plan, which puts first-ever limits on dangerous carbon pollution from power plants. The final limits will prevent tens of thousands of asthma attacks and thousands of premature deaths by 2030.

But did you know there’s another sound yet untapped opportunity to slow climate change and keep our air clean?

Right now, the oil and gas industry carelessly leaks millions of tons of methane pollution and toxic chemicals into the air. This pollution creates asthma-triggering smog and can cause cancer. Methane also has a huge role in climate warming, trapping heat 80 times more powerfully over the short term than carbon pollution from coal!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a methane pollution standard for new sources within the oil and gas industry that would help reduce lung problems, heart disease, and worse. Without standards like this one, methane pollution could increase by 25% over the next decade. But with the standards, one out of every two Latinos who live in the country’s worst counties for air pollution can breathe a little easier.

That’s why I’ve joined the 18 Latino leaders from across the country who just sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in support of the standard. Calling the issue of methane pollution “personal,” representatives from the Central California Environmental Justice Network; Chispa in Nevada and Arizona; Climate Parents; Green Chicano; Green Latinos; the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities; IDEAS For Us; Juntos: Our Air, Our Water; the Latino Victory Project; the League of United Latin American Citizens; MANA; Mi Familia Vota; the National Hispanic Medical Association; Protegete: Nuestro Aire, Nuestra Salud; and Voto Latino thanked the Administrator for her leadership on the “strongest possible methane standard” for new sources of methane pollution and said “we … stand ready to work with you to safeguard clean air and a stable environment for our communities and families, now and in the future.”

As important as this proposed standard is, however, it’s not the end of the story. The letter also calls on the EPA to propose a methane standard for existing oil and gas operations – the second largest source of climate changing pollution after power plants. Existing source standards are a critical next step in the continuing effort to protect our communities from the impacts of climate change.

Want to add your voice? There’s still time, if you act by December 4.

This article was originally published in NRDC Switchboard.


[Photo by WildEarth Guardians/Flickr]

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