Congressional Democrats Advance Legislation to Further Vilify American Natural Gas

April 28, 2021

This week, Senate Democrats are advancing legislation to reinstate Obama-era regulations on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. Rather than look for meaningful ways to expand sources of American energy and make it more affordable for working families, Congressional Democrats again seek to vilify American energy sources.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW), captured how the Democrats’ latest actions are just one more step in their attack against domestic energy. In a Washington Times column, she wrote:

Despite calls for “unity,” in some of his first actions President Biden managed to kill thousands of jobs and paralyze America’s energy industry with executive orders. The Biden moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands is an economic, energy, and national security disaster rolled into one.

This order moves America from energy independence back to relying on foreign adversaries for energy—countries that have much laxer environmental standards. This action is indicative of the incoming climate agenda that will have drastic impacts on our nation’s energy sector.

The forces against natural gas are growing. And they’re against natural gas, nuclear, or any other energy source that’s not blessed by the Green New Deal.

The ridiculousness of the Democrats’ targeting methane emissions is that they’re already going down thanks to industry initiatives and better technology. Because methane is a primary component of natural gas, the industry is already incentivized to reduce methane release both from an environmental and business standpoint.

The Environmental Partnership, a coalition of natural gas and oil companies seeking to improve their environmental performance, noted in their 2020 annual report:

Methane emissions rates from five of the largest producing regions across the U.S. have fallen nearly 70 percent even as natural gas production in those regions tripled over the 2011-2018 period, demonstrating the industry’s hard work to efficiently deliver energy to consumers.

Once again, Democrats are offering a solution in search of a problem. The oil and gas industry is already controlling and reducing methane emissions. But why offer meaningful energy solutions when you could instead attack American energy companies that provide millions of high-paying jobs and affordable, reliable energy to American households?