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Senate Environment reconciliation provisions pause methane tax

Plan also would repeal what Republicans call a ‘mandate’ for electric vehicles

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday released its title of the reconciliation bill that would rescind funding for over two dozen programs established by the 2022 reconciliation law and repeal stricter tailpipe emissions standards.

The proposal mirrors rescissions and policies laid out in the House reconciliation bill in pulling back on clean energy initiatives in the name of Republicans’ “energy independence” goals. But the Senate committee didn’t provide a figure showing the impact on the deficit. The panel had been directed by the budget resolution to deliver provisions that would increase the deficit by no more than $1 billion. 

“This legislative text puts in motion plans that Senate Republicans pledged to take, like stopping Democrats’ natural gas tax and rescinding unobligated dollars from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act,” Environment and Public Works Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a statement, referring to the 2022 reconciliation law.

The title would pause for a decade the enforcement of the tax on certain methane emissions that was included in the 2022 law and rescind all unobligated funds provided for the collection of the tax.

Twenty-five of the 28 sections in the Senate panel’s title relate to the full or partial repeal of programs established by the 2022 law, according to a section-by-section summary released with the bill text. The committee also released a one-page description of the provisions. 

The proposal would rescind unobligated funding from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, environmental and climate justice block grants, and for clean heavy-duty vehicles.

The provisions would also repeal a Biden-administration EPA tailpipe emissions rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles — a regulation that Republicans have called a “mandate” to switch to electric vehicles. The EPA has already said that it would work to repeal the regulation through the rulemaking process, but a legislative repeal would save the agency time and resources.

The bill would also provide $257 million to the Kennedy Center that is “necessary for capital repair, restoration, maintenance backlog and security structures of the building and site.” The House bill would do the same. 

The Senate provisions would also mirror the House bill by creating an opt-in fee that would allow project sponsors to pay for an expedited review under the National Environmental Policy Act. The fee would be equal to 125 percent of the costs to prepare the environmental reviews, and the provision sets a one-year timeline for completion of an impact statement and a six-month timeline for an environmental assessment.

The title would also stipulate that these reviews aren’t subject to judicial review.

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