WASHINGTON  – Responding to House passage of the Build Back Better reconciliation package that includes punitive policies like a methane fee and numerous federal leasing policies, American Exploration and Production Council CEO, Anne Bradbury, underscored the negative consequences of these policies:

“This partisan reconciliation bill, if enacted, will increase energy prices for every American family.

“Congress could have chosen to help alleviate Americans’ rising energy prices by championing policies that support domestic production – instead they passed a partisan bill that includes a new natural gas tax that will increase Americans’ energy costs on top of soaring inflation.

“The myriad of punitive federal leasing policies in the reconciliation bill will lead to less production on federal lands, which will hurt America’s energy security and be yet another upward pressure on Americans’ energy prices.

“Using punitive policies to tax natural gas and restrict access to federal lands to target a segment of our economy that supports millions of good-paying American jobs will cause wide-spread job loss and raise energy costs for every American – on top of rising inflation costs.

“It is imperative that US Senators – especially those whose states include tens of thousands of American energy workers with good-paying jobs and whose communities benefit from our industry  – vote for a budget that avoids punitive policies like a natural gas tax and restrictive federal lands policies, and instead recognizes our industry’s essential role in supporting lower energy prices and our national energy security.”

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the natural gas tax would cost the American people $8 billion and the natural resources provisions would cost $16.3 billion.

New Natural Gas Tax:

• • Higher energy costs act as a regressive tax on American families and businesses.  The most vulnerable Americans will suffer the largest burden of this policy. One-third of Americans already have trouble paying their energy bills, adding a new tax on natural gas would only make those burdens larger.  An analysis by the American Gas Association (AGA) shows that this proposed tax would increase natural gas bills at least 12 percent – maybe even up to 34 percent. This could be on top of the double-digit increase predicted by EIA.
  • This punitive methane fee amounts to a production tax on America’s oil and natural gas industry that would hurt supply of natural gas and could cost the American people over $9 billion and about 90,000 jobs across the country, according to an analysis by the American Petroleum Institute.
  • A new natural gas tax will add additional increased costs to Americans’ energy bills, layered on top of inflation and the $13 billion in compliance costs from EPA’s new methane regulations.
  • Rather than incentivizing investments in emerging technologies to accelerate emissions reductions, the proposed methane tax would have the reverse effect of hampering investment in breakthrough technologies.
  • The legislation is constructed in a way that penalizes the industry.  Because the legislation relies on flawed, biased formulas, many operators who operate nationally below a 0.2 percent methane intensity will pay this punitive tax.

Production on Federal Lands

• • Energy produced on federal lands and waters is critical to America’s energy security, accounting for 20 percent of all oil and natural gas produced here.
  • The federal lands provisions in reconciliation negatively impact existing leases and dramatically increases the cost, risk and business uncertainty associated with developing federal minerals.
  • By increasing the cost and risk associated with developing on federal land, reconciliation will result in significantly less development on federal lands – which will result in significantly less revenue for local and state economies, especially in the west, which is highly dependent upon responsible federal development.

About the American Exploration and Production Council:
AXPC is a national trade association representing the largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the United States. We lead the world in the cleanest and safest onshore production of oil and gas, while supporting millions of Americans in high-paying jobs and investing a wealth of resources in our communities. Learn more at https://axpc.org/

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