Oil and gas companies face much higher fines for breaking federal rules.
H.R. 10255 — Penalties for Polluters Act · Filed by Maxine Dexter (D-OR) · 19 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 3, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill raises penalties for breaking federal oil and gas laws. Fines go from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. Penalties grow each year to match inflation. Half of extra money from fines goes to states and tribes. The other half goes to agencies that enforce the rules.
Who it affects
Oil and gas companies that break federal rules face much larger fines. States, tribes, and communities harmed by violations get money to recover. Agencies that enforce rules get money to hire more staff.
One thing to notice
The bill only applies to violations that happen after it becomes law. Violations that happened before the bill passed are not affected.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
19 cosponsors: 19 Democrats.
- Sep 3, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 3, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Transportation and…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- inflation — The rising cost of living over time.
- penalties — Money fines a company must pay for breaking a law.
- enforce — To make sure people and companies follow the law.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,288 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-17.
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