Energy & Commerce Budget Bill Targets Programs to Reduce Pollution, Innovate Industrial Sector & Includes “Pay to Pollute” Provisions

Late last night, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released its portion of the budget reconciliation bill that will harm Americans in a variety of ways, from gutting Medicaid to slashing programs that protect clean air. The legislation is expected to be marked up in a committee meeting tomorrow.

Slated for delay or repeal in the proposal are programs to monitor and reduce corporate pollution, incentivize cleaner manufacturing to create domestic jobs, and invest in renewable energy, among many others.

Mahyar Sorour, Sierra Club Director of Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy, said, “House Republicans are bending over backwards to give handouts to big polluters while their constituents pay the price of worse pollution and higher energy bills. Vital services and protections are being cut to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. The idea that corporate polluters can pay a fee to freely pollute our communities is beyond the pale. This is a terrible bill for the American people. The House should get their priorities straight and reject this proposal.”

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.
• 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.