American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers issued the following statement after the House Energy and Commerce Committee released its proposed markup of the 2025 tax reconciliation bill, which includes a 10-year pause of the EPA’s Waste Emissions Charge (WEC) established under the Inflation Reduction Act as well as innovative permitting solutions:
“We applaud the House Energy and Commerce Committee for taking an important first step toward abolishing the ‘methane fee’ while also advancing important progress on permitting for infrastructure and U.S. LNG. We look forward to working with the EPA and Congress to ensure a smart regulatory framework for continued American energy development, and we hope that the final package includes the permanent repeal of this punitive tax.”
The WEC rule is redundant and penalizes early adopters of methane-cutting technologies. U.S. oil and natural gas producers are already regulated under EPA methane standards. U.S. methane emissions declined by 42 percent from 2015-23 while production increased by 51 percent.
