Bill checks if natural gas exports raise U.S. home energy prices.
S. 4735 — Protecting Americans from High Electricity Prices Act of 2026 · Filed by Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · Introduced Jun 10, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill changes the Natural Gas Act. It tells FERC to check three things before allowing natural gas exports. First, FERC must see if exports raise prices for American homes and businesses. Second, FERC must check if exports increase greenhouse gas emissions. This includes emissions from making and moving the gas. Third, FERC must see if exports send energy to hostile countries. FERC must block or limit exports that fail these checks.
Who it affects
The bill affects households and businesses that use natural gas for heat and power. It affects natural gas companies that sell gas to other countries. It affects energy workers and industries that depend on natural gas.
One thing to notice
The bill gives FERC a 30-day deadline to write new rules. The Department of Energy can decide which countries count as hostile.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jun 10, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 10, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
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 $230,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 68 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Jeff Merkley, who sponsored the bill, received $501,425 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- League of Conservation Voters — $230,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- FERC — The government agency that approves natural gas exports and sets energy rules.
- greenhouse gas emissions — Gases released when burning fuel that trap heat in the air.
- natural gas exports — Sending natural gas from the United States to other countries to sell.
- hostile — Countries the U.S. government views as enemies or threats.
- 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.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 9, 2026; 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.
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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-17.
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