Congress may soon repeal a Trump-era methane rule rollback after the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a proposal to the full chamber June 10.
Following the U.S. Senate's passage of a companion proposal in April, the Democrat-led House is positioned to potentially overturn the Trump administration's rules that no longer required oil and gas operators to monitor for methane emissions from their facilities. The Biden administration is also focused on reducing methane emissions as a key climate priority and is working on new regulations under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In 2020, the Trump administration finalized rules under the EPA that effectively repealed Obama-era methane regulations on the oil and gas sector. The Senate recently invoked the Congressional Review Act to repeal the Trump administration's rules and put the Obama regulations back in place. The Congressional Review Act allows lawmakers to rescind a rule within 60 days of an agency transmitting the rule to Congress through a simple majority vote in both chambers.
The House committee voted to advance the methane resolution along with several other energy-related bills during a June 10 markup.
"The Trump recission rule was a thinly veiled attempt to limit regulation of the oil and gas industry at the expense of our health, our safety and our planet at a time when these protections, I think, are needed more than ever," committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., said before the 30-22 vote on the resolution. "And it was such an outrageous overreach that it was opposed by not only environmentalists but also by many in the fossil fuel industry."
Several Republicans countered that the bill would hurt American energy producers, particularly smaller companies. Some also argued that monitoring requirements for volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which are often co-emitted with methane, were sufficient to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. A recent report found that while larger oil and gas producers are responsible for the bulk of methane emissions, smaller entities have an outsized impact.
"This partisan resolution is also an attack on states and the principles of cooperative federalism," said ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. "Methane is already regulated by the states, and additional EPA methane regulations are redundant. Methane is already captured by pollution controls for VOCs."
Additionally, the committee favorably reported several bills focused on energy security, having advanced the proposals in prior legislative sessions.
The committee voted favorably on the Cyber Sense Act of 2021, a bill that would direct the U.S. Energy Department to create a "voluntary Cyber Sense program to test the cybersecurity of products and technologies intended for use in the bulk-power system," according to its text. If passed, the bill would create a testing process under the program to assess products, including those pertaining to operational technologies, and would establish a database containing information on products' cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Lawmakers also advanced a proposal that would direct the DOE to work with state regulators and industry stakeholders to develop voluntary assessments evaluating utilities' physical security and cybersecurity systems. The bill, the Enhancing Grid Security through Public-Private Partnerships Act, would promote cybersecurity training for electric utilities and information-sharing within the industry as well. The committee advanced the Pipeline and LNG Facility Cybersecurity Preparedness Act, which would direct the DOE to institute a program focused on cybersecurity for pipelines and LNG facilities.
The members favorably reported the Energy Emergency Leadership Act, a proposal to a create a new DOE assistant secretary position focused on energy emergency and security actions, including those pertaining to cybersecurity.
