Small oil and gas wells skip federal air rules.
S. 4619 — Protect Domestic Oil and Gas Small Business Act of 2026 · Filed by Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) · 10 cosponsors · Introduced May 21, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill changes the Clean Air Act. Small oil and gas wells can now skip federal rules about air, leak checks, and gas reports. A well is small if it makes 15 barrels of oil per day or less. Or it makes 90,000 cubic feet of gas per day or less. The EPA must approve state plans that remove these wells from air standards within 180 days. If the EPA does not act, the plans are approved.
Who it affects
People living near small oil and gas wells lose air protections. Methane and other gases from these wells will no longer be measured or reported under federal law. Local air pollution and heat-trapping gases will increase.
One thing to notice
The bill stops the EPA from requiring states to include small wells in air plans. States' plan changes are approved after 180 days if the EPA does not reject them. This shifts power from the EPA to states.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
10 cosponsors: 10 Republicans.
- May 21, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 21, 2026 — 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
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $250,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 27 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Cynthia Lummis, who sponsored the bill, received $550,692 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Independent Petroleum Association of America — $250,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Clean Air Act — The main federal law that sets rules to protect air and reduce pollution.
- methane — A gas from oil and gas wells that traps heat in the air.
- EPA — The federal agency that makes and enforces rules to protect air and water.
- 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 (3,691 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 16,778 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 Jun 2026 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 18, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-01.
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