"Congress is about to impose a fee on methane emissions that will, essentially, raise the price of nearly everything.
Natural gas is nearly pure methane, so any company producing natural gas who is affected by this legislation will have to increase their prices to cover the cost of this fee.
Natural gas is used for heating homes, so home heating bills will increase.
Natural gas is used for making thousands of products, so their prices will increase.
Natural gas is also used to produce electricity more cheaply than wind or solar which require costly storage, so the cost of electricity will increase.
Here is the wording from the proposed legislation that is part of the 3.5 trillion infrastructure package.
IN GENERAL.
—The Administrator shall impose and collect a fee from the owner or operator of each applicable facility that is required to report methane emissions pursuant to subpart W of part 98 of title 40, Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor regulations).
FEE AMOUNT.
—The amount of a fee imposed and collected under subsection (a) for an applicable facility shall be equal to the product obtained by multiplying—
‘‘(1) subject to subsection (d), the number of tons of methane reported for the applicable facility pursuant to subpart W of part 98 of title 40, Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor regulations), during the previous reporting period, as expressed on a carbon dioxide equivalent basis; and $60.
Note that the language imposes a fee based on a complex calculation rather than merely stating the fee outright.
This is typical of how bureaucrats operate.
It’s always a question of obfuscation.
Fundamental Reality:
Note that the proposed legislation refers to other existing legislation ...
This is a fundamental problem with all new legislation, making it difficult for the average citizen to know what is intended.
A 2,000-page Bill may have dozens of references to existing legislation which requires hours of tedious research to determine the actual effect of any proposed legislation.
As long as this is the case, and there is no indication it will change, it underlines the importance of vetting the people Americans vote for.
The ultimate objective of this proposed legislation is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels.
But to really eliminate methane emissions they will need to go after agriculture.
This chart from the EIA, shows that methane emissions from agriculture (216 MMT) are greater than from natural gas systems (175 MMT). (MMT as CO2 equivalents.):
All eventually failed along party lines.”
This indicates American farmers and ranchers will also be under attack.
The proposed methane legislation is a tiny component of this administration’s net-zero carbon policy.
The EPA is also planning to impose expansive restrictions on methane.
Quoting E&E News:
“EPA Administrator Michael Regan confirmed last week that his agency will meet President Biden’s September deadline to propose methane regulations for the oil and gas sector, as laid out in one of the president’s first executive orders.”
Like every other effort to eliminate fossil fuels, it increases the cost of living for every American.
Methane fees will increase the cost of heating homes and buildings, increase the cost of products using plastics, such a toothpaste, and increase the cost of electricity."