Congress orders a study on why oil refineries are closing
H.R. 3109 — Researching Efficient Federal Improvements for Necessary Energy Refining Act · Filed by Robert Latta (R-OH) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 30, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill tells the Secretary of Energy to request a report. The National Petroleum Council must write it within 90 days. The report must study U.S. oil refineries and why they are shrinking. It must examine what federal and state rules caused the decline. It must suggest ways to make refineries bigger and be made public.
Who it affects
The bill does not create new rules or give out money. Oil refining companies may benefit if the report leads to rule changes. The public gets to read the report.
One thing to notice
The bill asks the report to study rules that caused refinery decline. It does not ask the report to study environmental or health impacts.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Apr 30, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 30, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
- Jun 5, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jun 25, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 28 - 20”
- Nov 20, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 230 - 176 (Roll no. 303). (text: CR H4835)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
5 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 7 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $57,360,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 18 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 78% of bills with any report.
Robert Latta, who sponsored the bill, received $856,126 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $54,660,000 in 3 reports
- Phillips 66 — $1,320,000 in 1 report
- American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers — $1,160,000 in 1 report
- Pbf Holding Company LLC — $200,000 in 1 report
- County of Kern — $20,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Secretary of Energy — The government official who leads the U.S. Department of Energy.
- National Petroleum Council — A group that gives advice to the government about oil and gas.
- refinery — A factory that turns crude oil into fuel and other products.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,507 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-21.
“Congress orders a study on why oil refineries are closing” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr3109/simple Report an error