Congress moves to kill federal methane-reduction program for oil and gas
S. 143 — Natural Gas Tax Repeal Act · Filed by Ted Cruz (R-TX) · 17 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 16, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill repeals Section 136 of the Clean Air Act, which established a methane emissions and waste reduction incentive program for petroleum and natural gas systems. It also cancels any unspent federal funds allocated to that program. The primary beneficiary is the natural gas and petroleum industry, which would no longer face this emissions-reduction requirement or incentive structure.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to eliminate a federal methane-emissions incentive program and rescind its funding. This is a straightforward deregulatory measure benefiting the oil and gas sector by removing an environmental compliance mechanism.
What the text implies
- Rescission of unobligated balances may free up federal funds previously earmarked for emissions reduction, potentially redirecting them elsewhere or reducing overall environmental spending.
- Removal of the incentive program eliminates a market-based mechanism that may have driven private investment in methane-capture technology; loss of this incentive could slow private-sector innovation in emissions control.
- The bill does not address existing state-level methane regulations or EPA rules under the Clean Air Act's general provisions, so federal deregulation here may be partially offset by state action, but the net federal signal is deregulatory.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose a federal program designed to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas; removing this incentive program increases atmospheric emissions and climate risk. The primary beneficiary is the natural gas and petroleum industry, which avoids compliance costs at public environmental expense.
Who stands to gain
- natural gas producers and distributors
- petroleum extraction and refining companies
- oil and gas equipment operators
Named in the bill
Clean Air Act, Section 136, methane emissions, petroleum and natural gas systems, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Where it stands
17 cosponsors: 17 Republicans.
- Jan 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 16, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $690,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 36 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Ted Cruz, the sponsor, reported $531,115 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Independent Petroleum Association of America — $500,000 on 2 filings
- American Lung Association — $190,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (421 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
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