Republicans Advance Energy & Commerce Committee Budget Bill that Will Harm Americans to Give Handouts to Polluters

Washington, DC - Today the House Energy and Commerce Committee finished marking up its portion of the budget reconciliation bill. While amendments to strike some of the most egregious handouts to the fossil fuel industry were proposed, they were rejected by Republicans. The bill from the committee will gut Medicaid, slash clean air programs, and establish a “pay to pollute” permitting system.

Mahyar Sorour, Sierra Club Director of Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy, said, “By rejecting amendments that would have protected people from polluters, House Republicans have put their priorities on full display: they believe that if you have money, you are allowed to dump pollution in our communities and raise energy prices on Americans with impunity. This bill would make devastating cuts to critical programs Americans rely on and slash investments in affordable clean energy and industrial innovation, all while allowing polluters to pay their way out of complying with environmental laws that protect public health. As it moves to the floor, we hope Republicans get to work on behalf of their constituents, not their corporate polluter donors, and Congress rejects this harmful legislation.”

Specifically, the legislation includes:

• A repeal of the Methane Emissions Reduction Program’s funding and the delay of the implementation of its Waste Emissions Charge for 10 years.
• A provision to allow methane gas export companies to pay a $1 million fee in exchange for LNG projects being automatically deemed in the public interest. LNG exports increase pollution and supercharge climate change while diminishing domestic energy supplies and raising prices for American consumers. An amendment offered by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez that elevated these pay to pollute provisions was rejected by House Republicans.
• Another provision to allow other gas infrastructure developers to receive an "expedited permitting process" from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under the Natural Gas Act if the applicant pays $10 million or 1 percent of the project's projected cost.
• $1.6B in cuts to the Department of Energy’s Industrial Demonstrations Program, Loans Program Office, and Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations — programs that help to decarbonize and innovate the heavily polluting industrial sector.
• Provisions to cut and repeal features of the federal Buy Clean Initiative, including environmental product declaration assistance and low-embodied carbon labeling to verify the cleanliness of innovative U.S. manufacturers.
• A provision to repeal and cut greenhouse gas corporate reporting, a critical tool to protect leading U.S. manufacturers from foreign carbon tariffs and encourage polluters to modernize.
• Repeal of EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which supports renewable energy projects in low-income communities.
• Cuts to programs that lower diesel emissions, reduce pollution at public and private ports, and support domestic electric vehicle manufacturing.
• And the repeal and rescinding of funding for environmental and climate justice block grants that provided financial and technical assistance to support community efforts to reduce pollution.