This comment form will remain open to signatures from individuals through December 10, 2026.

Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0163

Re: Strong Opposition to Rollback of 2024 Methane Rule

December 2026

Dear Administrator Zeldin: 

We, the undersigned, urge the EPA to uphold and enforce the 2024 Methane Rule in full without further delay. Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, who viewed all elements of creation as kin, we urge the Agency to honor its moral and statutory obligation to safeguard public health, protect vulnerable communities, and exercise responsible stewardship over our common home.

Franciscan-hearted people believe, as Pope Francis taught, in an Integral Ecology—the understanding that environmental destruction and human suffering are fundamentally intertwined. We believe that the U.S. cannot separate the protection of nature from the protection of vulnerable communities. 

• The Burden on the Vulnerable: Nearly one in ten people in the United States live in a county with over 1,000 low-producing fossil fuel wells. The current administrative delay in enforcing leak detection subjects these frontline communities to continued, unnecessary exposure to dangerous air pollution.
• The Cost in Human Lives: Venting and flaring pollution alone causes $7.4 billion in annual health damages, leading to over 700 premature deaths and 73,000 childhood asthma exacerbations every year. In Franciscan thought, subjecting neighbors—especially young children—to preventable respiratory illnesses for corporate convenience is a profound ethical failure. Enforceable federal rules save lives.

St. Francis called on humanity to reject greed, practice restraint, and honor the inherent value of creation rather than treating it merely as a resource to be exploited or discarded. The environment is not a resource to be exploited, but a shared gift that belongs to everyone and requires moral stewardship. 

• Waste of Natural Resources: In just the first year following administrative delays in active enforcement, the fossil fuel industry leaked, vented, or flared over $7 billion worth of natural gas. Allowing billions of dollars in usable energy to escape into the atmosphere is a failure of basic stewardship that harms both consumers and the environment.
• Accounting for the True Cost: High-polluting, low-producing wells account for nearly half of all climate-accelerating methane emissions. These wells are predominantly owned by large, highly profitable corporations. Allowing companies to profit while shifting the physical and financial burdens of air pollution, extreme weather, and medical costs onto local communities contradicts basic principles of justice and accountability.

In the Catholic and Franciscan social tradition, public policy must be crafted to ensure the common good— to care for every person and most especially the marginalized and most vulnerable. Policy must protect the interests and health of the many, and each one, and not the profits of the few. 

• The 2024 EPA Methane Rule was built on a strong, collaborative foundation. It was shaped by community leaders, health experts, energy investors, and industry representatives, receiving over 900,000 public comments in favor of robust standards.
• The rule’s key provisions—eliminating routine flaring, mandating zero-emitting equipment, addressing super-emitter events, and integrating satellite leak tracking—provide a common-sense path forward to protect the common good. Furthermore, federal standards establish a uniform level of protection, preventing a disjointed patchwork of state-by-state protections that leave some communities unprotected simply because of where they live.
• The Super Emitter Program must be upheld to hold the oil and gas industry accountable. Super-emitters, which are a small percentage of oil and gas facilities and responsible for a disproportionately large share of total methane emissions, present a particular and urgent spiritual and moral crisis. 

We urge the EPA to uphold and enforce the 2024 Methane Rule in full without further delay. Rolling back the 2024 Methane Rule compromises public health, accelerates climate disruption, and undermines the common good. Please do what is right, just, and faithful – maintain the 2024 Methane Rule. 

Respectfully submitted,