Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee considers draft legislative text for its portion of a sweeping bill advancing through the congressional reconciliation process, which includes a provision that would delay and defund the Methane Emission Reduction Program (MERP). The MERP's waste emissions charge is estimated to raise $7.2 billion in federal revenues and save American families and taxpayers tens of billions in avoided health costs.

In response, EEN Action President & CEO Rev. Dr. Jessica Moerman submitted the following letter urging members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to oppose efforts to delay or repeal this cost-effective fee on wasted natural gas and instead come together to optimize the MERP to generate federal revenue, create jobs, and defend the health and lives of our children:

Dear Member of the House Committee for Energy and Commerce,

On behalf of the more than 600,000 pro-life Christians who have voiced their support for methane pollution safeguards over the last decade, I write to urge you to oppose efforts to repeal the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP) and delay implementation of the Waste Emissions Charge (WEC) in the forthcoming budget reconciliation package.

As evangelical Christians, we believe that all human life is sacred and worthy of protection. We are committed to defending life, especially that of our children both born and unborn, from all harms. This includes harms from pollution from carbon-based energy, which medical research finds is the leading environmental threat to children’s health. Air pollution emitted with wasted natural gas is linked to the development and exacerbation of asthma, other respiratory diseases, cancer due to exposure to carcinogenic benzenes, heart disease, premature death, and poor birth outcomes including birth defects, low birth weight, premature birth, and even stillbirth.

Together, air pollution associated with methane waste emissions from the oil and gas sector is estimated to cost Americans $77 billion in health impacts each year [1], with energy-producing regions most affected.

While some have called the WEC a tax on natural gas that companies will pass on to consumers; in truth consumers are already paying a natural gas tax: through $77 billion per year in health costs, poor health, and the grief of losing a loved one early from exposure to toxic pollution that can be avoided by capturing wasted natural gas.

To defend the health of our children, energy workers, and their families, our country must curtail needlessly wasted natural gas. The MERP is a fiscally responsible, market-based measure designed to curb methane waste that will raise billions in federal revenues and save American families and taxpayers tens of billions in avoided health costs.

While the current draft text extends the WEC through 2035, it simultaneously delays its start date by a full decade—pushing the first year of covered emissions from 2024 to 2034 and effectively gutting the program’s impact for the next ten years. The delayed implementation of the fee until 2034 would eliminate $7.2 billion in projected federal revenue and allow for another decade the egregious waste of $1 billion in lost commercial value per year.

While concerns have been raised that a fee to encourage the oil and gas sector to capture wasted natural gas could negatively impact small producers, the MERP was specifically designed to support small producers in reducing their methane waste. As part of the program, only the largest producers would be assessed a fee, which would end once methane waste emissions are sufficiently reduced. Furthermore, federal taxpayers have already provided generous financial assistance to assist industry in reducing methane waste, with much of the $1.55 billion in MERP grant funding already out the door. Much of this assistance was aimed at lowering the bar for small producers to put in place waste reduction technologies.

Wasted natural gas is not only poor stewardship of our energy resources but robs our children and loved ones from reaching their full God-given potential. Excessive methane waste should be assessed a fee to defend the health of our children, ensure taxpayers are compensated for the loss of a valuable American resource, and encourage oil and gas partners to address the energy emergency by bringing more gas to market instead of wasting it into thin air.

Now is not the time to put a significant federal revenue raiser on the sidelines. We urge you to oppose efforts to repeal the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP) and delay implementation of the Waste Emissions Charge (WEC).

We instead urge the committee to come together for discussion and dialogue on optimizing the implementation of MERP to generate federal revenue, create jobs, and defend the life of our children.

[1] Jonathan J Buonocore et al (2023) Air pollution and health impacts of oil & gas production in the United States. Environ. Res.: Health .1 021006