PA Environment Digest Blog: Congressional House Republicans To Eliminate Funding For The Federal Methane Emissions Reduction Program, Including PA's MERP Grant Program To Plug Conventional Oil & Gas Wells

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Congressional House Republicans To Eliminate Funding For The Federal Methane Emissions Reduction Program, Including PA's MERP Grant Program To Plug Conventional Oil & Gas Wells

On May 13, the US House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to consider draft legislative text for its portion of a sweeping bill advancing through the Congressional budget reconciliation process, which includes a provision that would delay and defund the Methane Emission Reduction Program (MERP).

This funding includes repeal of the provisions in the federal Clean Air Act making funding available for Pennsylvania’s MERP conventional oil and gas well plugging program.

Any unobligated funding under this program would be rescinded, if the Committee’s proposal is approved.

DEP received $44.4 million for grants under this program and only a small portion has been obligated so far. Read more here.

DEP would still have federal funding remaining for conventional oil and gas well plugging under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act for its primary well plugging effort and to plug orphan conventional wells, unless Congress acts to rescind the funding.

US House Committee Action

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 program 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, and 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, 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.

For more information on programs, initiatives, upcoming events and how you can get involved, visit the Evangelical Environmental Network website. ENN is based in New Freedom, York County.

The mission of ENN is to inspire, equip, educate, and mobilize evangelical Christians to love God and others by rediscovering and reclaiming the Biblical mandate to care for creation and working toward a stable climate and a healthy, pollution-free world.

Related Articles This Week:

-- Environmental Defense Fund Blog: Another Study Identifies Health Risks During Unconventional Oil & Gas Production Even For Those Living Within 1,000 Feet Or More Of Wells [PaEN]

-- DEP Issues RFP For Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Well Plugging Services On Time & Materials Basis As Needed [PaEN]

-- Rise Of The Machines: Senate, House Members Express Concern That Demand For Power To Run Computers Is Impacting The Price And Availability Of Electricity For ‘Ordinary People’ [PaEN]

NewsClips:

-- Post-Gazette - Ford Turner: PA Regional Power Grid Operator Sees Manageable Summer Peak Load, But A Slight Risk Of ‘Running Short’

-- PennLive: PPL Customers Will See Another Rate Increase June 1 - 16% [Due To Regional Electric Market Issues]

-- TribLive: New Kensington’s Re:Build To Boost US Production Capacity For Renewable Hydrogen In Westmoreland County

-- TribLive Guest Essay: Hydrogen Future Begins In Western PA - If We Seize It - By ConservAmerica

-- Observer-Reporter Guest Essay: Unleash PA’s Energy Potential By Fixing Federal Tax Code ‘Mistake’ For Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers - Rep. Tim O’Neal (R-Washington)

-- Pittsburgh Business Times: WhiteHawk Energy To Acquire PHX Minerals For $187 Million, Growing Marcellus Shale Footprint

-- Financial Times: Constellation Energy, Other Companies Abandon Almost Half the Projects In $5 Billion Texas Program To Fund Natural Gas Power Plants Due To Costs, Supply Chain Delays [Sen. Yaw Wants A Program Like This In PA]