Committee Vote Advances Effort to Reinstate Oil and Gas Pollution Rules to House Floor

(WASHINGTON – June 10, 2021) The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a measure (H.J.Res.34) to restore EPA rules that limit oil and gas methane pollution. The resolution is now expected to be taken up for a full House floor vote in the coming weeks. The Senate passed a similar resolution on a bipartisan vote in April. Passage of the resolutions will rescind a rule adopted by EPA in 2020 that wrote methane out of air quality regulations and exempted the transmission and storage segments from air regulations altogether.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas – over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe – that is responsible for 25% of the global warming we are experiencing today. EDF estimates U.S. oil and gas producers leak about 16 million metric tons of methane – the main component of natural gas – every year, wasting $3 billion worth of saleable product. The measure to restore EPA rules limiting methane emissions is supported by an array of oil and gas companies and industry trade associations.

“Today’s vote takes the nation one step closer to a return to sensible methane policy,” said Dan Grossman, Senior Director of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, EDF Action. “We are grateful to Chairman Pallone, Congresswoman DeGette and all of the members of the Energy and Commerce Committee who voted in favor of this important, common-sense resolution. Methane mitigation fights climate change, reduces waste of natural gas and creates jobs, benefitting the economy and the environment.”