Republican-Sponsored Energy Bill Passes The House

By Julianne Geiger - Mar 30, 2023

A Republican sponsored energy bill passed the House on Thursday that seeks to promote oil and gas production in the United States, as well as repeal parts of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

H.R. 1 passed the House by a 225-204, according to Bloomberg, although it must now face a seemingly insurmountable hurdle in the Senate and President Biden's desk.

The elements of the Republican-backed bill include:

• Repealing the first-time fee on methane emissions
• Rolling back the fees for oil and gas industries that were included in the Inflation Reduction Act
• Increasing royalties rates for oil and gas, which were also spelled out in the Inflation Reduction Act
• Putting into law former President Trump's changes to the National Environmental Policy Act
• Repealing the $27 billion in funding to the EPA for the purposes of establishing a green bank
• A plan to speed up energy project permitting
• Putting a two-year limit on environmental reviews for energy projects
• Limiting litigation surrounding reviews
• Exempting certain activities from environmental reviews
• Mandating more oil and gas lease sales
• Making it more difficult for individual states to block interstate pipeline projects
• Streamlining the permitting process for energy projects

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer referred to the H.R. 1 as dead on arrival.

The Bill could also get vetoed by the President.

The legislation, however, could gain traction in exchange for Republicans giving way to their resistance to the Democrats' plan to raise the federal debt limit.

Domestic energy policy became a popular subject of political debate in the days following the coronavirus pandemic as oil and gasoline prices shot up with the increase in demand. President Biden has tried to balance his aggressive climate policies amid rising energy prices, alienating both the oil and gas industry and climate groups.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com