Environmental Defense Fund President to testify before the Senate’s Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety

MEDIA ADVISORY: Tuesday, June 19, 10 A.M. EDT

CONTACT
Mica Odom, 512-691-3451, modom@edf.org

WHAT
Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defense Fund, will be testifying tomorrow before the Subcommittee on the Clean Air and Nuclear Safety to review the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new air standards for hydraulically fractured natural gas wells and oil and natural gas storage.  The oversight hearing of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule will be held in the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety.

Fred Krupp will be available to speak to reporters in-person after the hearing. Additional EDF experts are available to comment. 

WHEN
Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 10:00 A.M. EDT

WHERE
406 Dirksen Senate Office Building or watch online here

WHO
Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund

BACKGROUND
The Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, under the Environment and Public Works Committee, is conducting an oversight review of EPA’s new air standards for hydraulically fractured natural gas wells and oil and natural gas storage.

With this action, the EPA finalized important clean air measures to reduce harmful pollutants discharged from a variety of oil and natural gas activities.  The standards limit harmful ozone precursors and air toxics, and as a co-benefit limit methane emissions, a potent climate forcer.  They build on leadership from states like Colorado and Wyoming, utilizing cost-effective, proven technologies that, in many cases, plug leaks throughout the system.

EPA’s standards will achieve these important reductions through the implementation of proven and highly cost-effective practices and technologies.  This results in saving both a domestic energy resource and saving producers money.  EPA estimates that the combined rules will yield a cost savings of $11 to $19 million in 2015, because the value of natural gas and condensate that will be recovered and sold will offset costs.

These common sense clean air measures are a win-win-win for a healthier environment, for our economy, and for our energy security.  But they also leave important issues unaddressed and are only a starting point in the nation’s efforts to address the serious air pollution burdens associated with oil and natural gas development.  The nation must also address methane emissions directly, put in place rigorous protections for already-existing sources of air pollution and address the extensive emissions from wells that co-produce oil and natural gas.  These and other solutions are necessary to address the range of public health and environmental impacts.  It is critical that we build on these clean air measures if our nation is to fulfill the President’s promise in his State of the Union address to develop natural gas without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.