Climate Polluters Set To Receive Handout from Oil Allies in Congress as Senate May Vote to Roll Back Vital Climate Protections
Repeal of methane waste emissions charge would curtail vital tool to hold drillers and frackers accountable for polluting air
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate could soon vote to repeal the EPA’s Waste Emissions Charge final rule, also known as the methane fee. The rule, required by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, directed the EPA to collect a charge on waste methane emissions from fossil fuel facilities in an effort to reduce methane vented into the air. The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to use the Congressional Review Act to repeal the rule.
In response, Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, issued the following statement:
“It’s a sorry testament to the influence of Big Oil on Capitol Hill that one of the top priorities of Congress is a blatant handout to the worst actors in the fossil fuel industry. Congress is showing its hypocrisy by claiming to seek to rein in government spending, while voting to repeal a revenue-raising fee that only applies to wasteful oil and gas companies. The methane fee was paired with a $1.5 billion government spending program to help oil and gas companies reduce harmful emissions. Voting to repeal the fee while allowing profitable corporations to pocket hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars is an affront to the millions of working Americans disrupted by indiscriminate DOGE cost-cutting.
“It should not be too much to ask fossil fuel producers to do the bare minimum to capture leaking methane. Any child knows that when you make a mess, you should clean it up. The fee was intended to be a key part of enforcing standards on an industry that has repeatedly cut corners in its endless drive to extract more fossil fuels.”
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