I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 752
To provide for methane emission detection and mitigation, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. C
ASTENintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
A BILL
To provide for methane emission detection and mitigation,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Methane Emissions 4
Mitigation Research and Development Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. METHANE EMISSION DETECTION AND MITIGATION. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle F of title IX of the En-7
ergy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16291 et seq.) is 8
amended by adding at the end the following new section: 9
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‘‘SEC. 969E. METHANE LEAK DETECTION AND MITIGATION. 1
‘‘(a) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.— 2
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary, in consulta-3
tion with the Administrator of the Environmental 4
Protection Agency, the Secretary of Commerce, and 5
the heads of other appropriate Federal agencies, 6
shall carry out a program of methane emissions de-7
tection and mitigation research, development, and 8
demonstration for technologies and methods that 9
significantly detect, quantify, and mitigate methane 10
emissions. In carrying out the program, the Sec-11
retary shall— 12
‘‘(A) enter into cooperative agreements 13
with State or local governments, institutions of 14
higher education, or for-profit entities to pro-15
vide technical assistance to— 16
‘‘(i) prevent or respond to methane re-17
leases, including prediction, detection, miti-18
gation, quantification, and identification of 19
leaks, vents, and other outflows throughout 20
the natural gas infrastructure (including 21
natural gas storage, pipelines, and natural 22
gas production sites); and 23
‘‘(ii) protect public health in the event 24
of a major methane release; 25
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‘‘(B) in coordination with representatives 1
from private sector entities, State and local gov-2
ernments, and institutions of higher education, 3
establish a publicly accessible resource for best 4
practices in the design, construction, mainte-5
nance, performance, monitoring, and incident 6
response for— 7
‘‘(i) pipeline systems, including com-8
pressor stations; 9
‘‘(ii) production wells; 10
‘‘(iii) storage facilities; and 11
‘‘(iv) other vulnerable infrastructure; 12
‘‘(C) in coordination with representatives 13
from private sector entities, State and local gov-14
ernments, and institutions of higher education, 15
establish a publicly accessible resource for best 16
practices in evaluation and incorporation of 17
emission reduction technologies, including— 18
‘‘(i) metrics for performance evalua-19
tion; and 20
‘‘(ii) principles for selection and inte-21
gration of emission reduction technologies 22
that are best suited for the project or enti-23
ty concerned; 24
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‘‘(D) support research of technologies to 1
more accurately quantify emissions, including— 2
‘‘(i) the ability to accurately charac-3
terize and measure methane emissions 4
through various atmospheric conditions 5
such as wind, rain, fog, and dust; 6
‘‘(ii) improvements to data analytics 7
and machine learning platforms; 8
‘‘(iii) the ability to characterize tem-9
poral patterns in emissions, such as 10
through continuous monitoring or multi-11
tiered system practices; 12
‘‘(iv) improvements to high-resolution 13
spectroscopic databases of methane; 14
‘‘(v) the ability to remotely detect car-15
bon and ethane isotopes to facilitate attri-16
bution of sources of methane emissions; 17
and 18
‘‘(vi) improvements to Lidar detection 19
technologies; 20
‘‘(E) identify high-risk characteristics of 21
pipelines, wells, storage facilities, and materials, 22
geologic risk factors, or other key factors that 23
increase the likelihood or intensity of methane 24
emissions leaks; 25
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‘‘(F) identify methane mitigation methods 1
and technologies in coal mines; and 2
‘‘(G) in collaboration with private sector 3
entities and institutions of higher education, 4
quantify and map significant geologic methane 5
seeps and other sources of natural emissions 6
across the United States. 7
‘‘(2) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In carrying out the 8
program under this section, the Secretary shall con-9
sider the following: 10
‘‘(A) Historical data of methane emissions. 11
‘‘(B) Public health consequences. 12
‘‘(C) Public safety. 13
‘‘(D) Novel materials and designs for pipe-14
lines, compressor stations, components, and 15
wells (including casing, cement, and wellhead). 16
‘‘(E) Regional geologic traits. 17
‘‘(F) Induced and natural seismicity. 18
‘‘(b) M
ETHANELEAKDETECTIONCONSORTIUM.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 20
the date of the enactment of this section, the Sec-21
retary shall establish and operate a Methane Emis-22
sions Measurement and Mitigation Research Consor-23
tium (in this section referred to as the ‘Consortium’) 24
for the purpose of supporting, to the maximum ex-25
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tent practicable, data sharing, research 1
prioritization, and researching cooperative leak de-2
tection and repair strategies pertaining to methane 3
emissions detection, quantification, and mitigation. 4
‘‘(2) M
EMBERSHIP.—The members of the Con-5
sortium shall be representatives from the National 6
Institute of Standards and Technology, other rel-7
evant Federal agencies, National Laboratories, oil 8
and gas operators and industry groups, vendors of 9
methane detection and quantification technologies, 10
institutions of higher education, community organi-11
zations, relevant nongovernmental organizations, and 12
other entities. 13
‘‘(3) R
ESPONSIBILITIES.—The Consortium shall 14
develop and implement a multiyear plan that— 15
‘‘(A) identifies technical goals and mile-16
stones for the Consortium; and 17
‘‘(B) facilitates data sharing for the pur-18
poses of— 19
‘‘(i) bettering the understanding of 20
methane emissions from the oil and gas 21
sector; 22
‘‘(ii) improving emissions detection, 23
measurement, and mitigation capabilities, 24
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including assessing multi-tiered atmos-1
pheric measurements; and 2
‘‘(iii) improving the understanding of 3
methane quantification data analytics and 4
machine learning platforms, including for 5
calibration of measurements. 6
‘‘(4) R
EPORTING.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 8
report on the Consortium’s activities to the ap-9
propriate congressional committees. 10
‘‘(B) I
NITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 18 11
months after the date of the enactment of this 12
section, the Secretary shall submit to the appro-13
priate congressional committees a report sum-14
marizing the activities, findings, and progress 15
of the program under this section. The report 16
shall include the following: 17
‘‘(i) A review of LDAR technologies 18
available to the oil and gas sector for the 19
purpose of methane emissions measure-20
ment and mitigation. 21
‘‘(ii) A summary of research gaps and 22
priorities related to methane emissions de-23
tection, measurement, and mitigation capa-24
bilities. 25
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‘‘(iii) A description of the data shar-1
ing and cooperative activities that have 2
been initiated pursuant to paragraph 3
(3)(B). 4
‘‘(C) A
NNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 5
year after the date on which the report under 6
subparagraph (B) is submitted and annually 7
thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the ap-8
propriate congressional committees a report 9
summarizing the activities, findings, and 10
progress of the program under this section. The 11
report shall include the following: 12
‘‘(i) An updated review of LDAR 13
technologies available to oil and gas opera-14
tors for the purpose of methane emissions 15
measurement and mitigation. 16
‘‘(ii) A description of the state of 17
methane emissions detection and measure-18
ment capabilities. 19
‘‘(iii) A summary of research prior-20
ities relating to methane emissions detec-21
tion, measurement, and mitigation. 22
‘‘(iv) An update on the data sharing 23
and cooperative activities undertaken by 24
members of the Consortium. 25
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‘‘(5) SUNSET; TERMINATION.— 1
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may 2
provide support to the Consortium for a period 3
of not more than ten years, subject to the avail-4
ability of appropriations. 5
‘‘(B) M
ERIT REVIEW.—Not later than 5 6
years after the date on which the Consortium is 7
established, the Secretary shall conduct a re-8
view to determine whether the Consortium has 9
achieved the technical goals and milestones 10
identified under paragraph (3)(A). 11
‘‘(6) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 12
‘‘(A) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COM -13
MITTEES.—The term ‘appropriate congressional 14
committees’ means the Committee on Science, 15
Space, and Technology of the House of Rep-16
resentatives and the Committee on Energy and 17
Natural Resources of the Senate. 18
‘‘(B) LDAR.—The term ‘LDAR’ means a 19
technology, program, or activity that is intended 20
to monitor, detect, measure, or repair methane 21
leaks. 22
‘‘(C) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ 23
means the Secretary of Energy. 24
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‘‘(7) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 1
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Sec-2
retary to carry out this section the following: 3
‘‘(A) $36,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. 4
‘‘(B) $38,000,000 for fiscal year 2027. 5
‘‘(C) $40,000,000 for fiscal year 2028. 6
‘‘(D) $42,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 7
‘‘(E) $44,000,000 for fiscal year 2030.’’. 8
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 9
in section 1(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 is amend-10
ed by adding at the end of the items relating to subtitle 11
F of title IX of such Act the following new item: 12
‘‘Sec. 969E. Methane leak detection and mitigation.’’.
(c) NATIONALFACILITIES FORTESTING ANDINTER-13
CALIBRATIONPROGRAMRELATING TOMETHANE.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 15
the date of the enactment of this Act and subject to 16
the availability of appropriations, the Secretary of 17
Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of En-18
ergy and the Administrator of the Environmental 19
Protection Agency, shall establish a program 20
through the National Institute of Standards and 21
Technology’s Center for Greenhouse Gas Measure-22
ments, Standards, and Information established pur-23
suant to section 10222 of the Research and Develop-24
ment, Competition, and Innovation Act (Public Law 25
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117–167; 42 U.S.C. 18932) that establishes national 1
facilities to advance methane detection, quantifica-2
tion, and relevant standards and supporting methods 3
for testing and intercalibration of methane measure-4
ments and the publication and maintenance of 5
standards for such measurements. 6
(2) R
ESPONSIBILITIES.—The facilities estab-7
lished under paragraph (1) shall facilitate detection 8
and quantification of carbon, carbon isotopes, meth-9
ane, ethane, and gases associated with such sources, 10
provide high-resolution spectroscopic reference data 11
advancing accuracy of remote sensing technologies, 12
develop methods relating methane concentration ob-13
servations to the associated emission fluxes, and fa-14
cilitate the rapid performance testing of existing and 15
new technologies for the measurement of methane 16
emissions, including testing conditions with a wide 17
range of the following: 18
(A) Sizes and extents of emission sources. 19
(B) Geographic diversity. 20
(C) Temporal characteristics. 21
(D) Diversity of atmospheric conditions, 22
such as wind, rain, fog, clouds, and dust. 23
(E) Diversity of observing platforms. 24
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(F) Quantification of atmospheric emission 1
plumes. 2
(3) A
NNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 2 years 3
after the date of the enactment of this Act and an-4
nually thereafter, the Secretary of Commerce shall 5
submit to Congress a report summarizing the activi-6
ties, findings, and progress of the program estab-7
lished under paragraph (1). 8
(4) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 9
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Sec-10
retary of Commerce to carry out this section the fol-11
lowing: 12
(A) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. 13
(B) $17,000,000 for fiscal year 2027. 14
(C) $19,000,000 for fiscal year 2028. 15
(D) $21,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 16
(E) $23,000,000 for fiscal year 2030 and 17
each fiscal year thereafter. 18
Æ
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