U.S. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) recently introduced legislation that would repeal the natural gas tax under the Clean Air Act.
The congressman on Jan. 9 sponsored the Natural Gas Tax Repeal Act, H.R. 313, in the U.S. House of Representatives while U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the same bill in the U.S. Senate.
Former President Joe Biden’s “harmful natural gas tax has driven up the cost of household energy bills and has made inflation even worse for hard-working Americans,” Rep. Pfluger said. “I am proud to work with Sen. Cruz to stand up for the Permian Basin by reintroducing the Natural Gas Tax Repeal Act to strike the president’s tax on natural gas.”
The Clean Air Act (CAA) — the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources — required, as specified in the Methane Emissions Reduction Program of the Inflation Reduction Act, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) impose and collect an annual charge on methane emissions that exceed specified waste emissions thresholds from an owner or operator of a facility that reports more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases emitted per year, according to the EPA.
If enacted, the measure specifically would repeal Section 136 of the CAA relating to methane emissions and the waste reduction incentive program for petroleum and natural gas systems, according to the bill’s text.
The bill is supported by the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, the American Exploration and Production Council, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, the U.S. Oil & Gas Association, the American Petroleum Institute, and the National Ocean Industries Association.