II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 514
To amend the Clean Air Act to modify the Methane Emissions Reduction
Program, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Mr. L
ANKFORDintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works
A BILL
To amend the Clean Air Act to modify the Methane
Emissions Reduction Program, 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
Reduction Program Clarifications Act of 2025’’ or the 5
‘‘MERP Clarifications Act of 2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. METHANE EMISSIONS AND WASTE REDUCTION IN-1
CENTIVE PROGRAM FOR PETROLEUM AND 2
NATURAL GAS SYSTEMS. 3
(a) A
MENDMENTS.—Section 136 of the Clean Air Act 4
(42 U.S.C. 7436) is amended— 5
(1) in subsection (f), by adding at the end the 6
following: 7
‘‘(8) E
XEMPTION FOR SMALL UPSTREAM PRO -8
DUCERS.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator 10
may not, pursuant to any requirement under 11
this section, impose a reporting requirement or 12
a charge under this section on an applicable fa-13
cility described in subparagraph (B). 14
‘‘(B) A
PPLICABLE FACILITIES DE -15
SCRIBED.—An applicable facility referred to in 16
subparagraphs (A), (C), and (D) is an applica-17
ble facility that, as of August 16, 2022— 18
‘‘(i) was generating less than 25,000 19
metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of 20
greenhouse gases emitted per year; and 21
‘‘(ii) had 2,500 or fewer full-time em-22
ployees. 23
‘‘(C) N
O REQUIREMENT TO DEM -24
ONSTRATE.—The Administrator may not im-25
pose a requirement that an applicable facility 26
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described in subparagraph (B) demonstrate to 1
the Administrator that the applicable facility 2
meets the requirements described in that sub-3
paragraph. 4
‘‘(D) N
OTIFICATION.— 5
‘‘(i) N
OTICE TO FACILITY.—Not later 6
than 60 days after the date of enactment 7
of this paragraph, the Administrator shall 8
provide written notice to each applicable 9
facility described in subparagraph (B) that 10
the applicable facility is not subject to the 11
reporting requirements or charges imposed 12
under this section. 13
‘‘(ii) P
UBLICATION.—The Adminis-14
trator shall communicate publicly (includ-15
ing through press releases and messages 16
on the website of the Environmental Pro-17
tection Agency) that the applicable facili-18
ties described in subparagraph (B) are not 19
subject to the reporting requirements or 20
charges imposed under this section. 21
‘‘(9) E
XEMPTION FOR CERTAIN PRODUCERS .— 22
Notwithstanding any other requirement of this sec-23
tion, the Administrator may not impose a charge 24
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under this section on an applicable facility during 1
any period in which the applicable facility— 2
‘‘(A) complies with subpart OOOOb and 3
OOOOc, as applicable, of part 60 of title 40, 4
Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regu-5
lations); and 6
‘‘(B) is located in a State in compliance 7
with the applicable State implementation plan 8
required under subpart OOOOc of that part (or 9
successor regulations).’’; 10
(2) by striking subsection (g) and inserting the 11
following: 12
‘‘(g) P
ERIOD.—The Administrator may not impose or 13
collect the charge under subsection (c) until January 1 14
of the first calendar year that begins after the date on 15
which the Administrator submits to the Committee on En-16
vironment and Public Works of the Senate and the Com-17
mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Rep-18
resentatives a written notice that each of the following re-19
quirements has been met for a period of not less than 1 20
year before that January 1: 21
‘‘(1) The grants authorized under subsections 22
(a) and (b) have been fully disbursed to all eligible 23
recipients. 24
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‘‘(2) The revisions to subpart W of part 98 of 1
title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, that are re-2
quired under this section— 3
‘‘(A) ensure the use of emissions factors 4
that have been validated by the Administrator 5
and posted to the website of the Administrator; 6
and 7
‘‘(B) have been finalized.’’; 8
(3) by redesignating subsection (i) as subsection 9
(k); 10
(4) by inserting after subsection (h) the fol-11
lowing: 12
‘‘(i) P
UBLICCOMMENTPERIOD.—Except as provided 13
in section 2(c) of the MERP Clarifications Act of 2025, 14
any proposed regulation, rule, guidance, or directive with 15
respect to the implementation of this section from the Ad-16
ministrator, the Executive Office of the President, or an-17
other Federal agency shall, consistent with subchapter II 18
of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of title 5, United States Code 19
(commonly known as the ‘Administrative Procedure Act’), 20
be subject to a period of public comment of not less than 21
90 days. 22
‘‘(j) D
ISPUTERESOLUTIONPROCEDURE.—Not later 23
than 60 days after the date of enactment of this sub-24
section, the Administrator shall, consistent with sub-25
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chapter II of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of title 5, United 1
States Code (commonly known as the ‘Administrative Pro-2
cedure Act’), propose a rule establishing an expedited 3
process for an applicable facility to appeal or dispute the 4
amount of a charge imposed under this section that is sep-5
arate and apart from any other such process under this 6
Act.’’; and 7
(5) by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(l) S
UNSET.— 9
‘‘(1) T
ERMINATION OF EFFECTIVENESS .—The 10
authority provided under this section terminates on 11
December 31, 2034. 12
‘‘(2) C
ONTINUED IMPOSITION OF WASTE 13
CHARGE.— 14
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If this section is not 15
reauthorized by December 31, 2034, the Ad-16
ministrator shall immediately cease all activities 17
with respect to the imposition of the charge 18
under this section. 19
‘‘(B) E
NFORCEMENT.— 20
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—If the Adminis-21
trator or the head of any other applicable 22
Federal agency carries out any authority 23
under this section after the date described 24
in subparagraph (A), a party that suffers 25
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likely harm from the carrying out of that 1
authority may seek financial compensation 2
from the Federal Government in the ap-3
propriate Federal district court. 4
‘‘(ii) E
XPEDITED RELIEF.—A Federal 5
district court shall expedite the consider-6
ation of an action described in clause (i) 7
brought by the owner of an applicable fa-8
cility with 2,500 or fewer full-time employ-9
ees. 10
‘‘(3) R
ESCISSION.—On December 31, 2034, 11
there is rescinded the unobligated balance of 12
amounts made available under subsections (a) and 13
(b) as of that date.’’. 14
(b) D
ESCRIPTION OFREQUIREMENTS AND CALCULA-15
TIONS.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after 17
the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 18
of the Environmental Protection Agency (referred to 19
in this section as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall make 20
publicly available, including on the website of the 21
Environmental Protection Agency, an Administra-22
tor’s Order that includes the following information: 23
(A) Consistent with the Plain Writing Act 24
of 2010 (5 U.S.C. 301 note; Public Law 111– 25
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274) and Executive Orders 12866 (5 U.S.C. 1
601 note; relating to regulatory planning and 2
review), 12988 (28 U.S.C. 519 note; relating to 3
civil justice reform), and 13563 (5 U.S.C. 601 4
note; relating to improving regulation and regu-5
latory review), an easily understandable expla-6
nation of— 7
(i) the methods used for calculating, 8
for purposes of section 136 of the Clean 9
Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7436)— 10
(I) the carbon dioxide equivalent 11
of greenhouse gases emitted; 12
(II) methane intensity; and 13
(III) other emissions factors; and 14
(ii) the key calculations necessary to 15
understand the requirements of the pro-16
gram under that section, including the con-17
version from carbon dioxide emissions to 18
methane emissions necessary for deter-19
mining the amount of the charge imposed 20
and collected under that section. 21
(B) The methods and mechanisms (includ-22
ing the methods and mechanisms described in 23
subparagraph (A)(i), as applicable) used to cal-24
culate, for each category described in para-25
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graphs (1) through (9) of subsection (d) of that 1
section, the charge imposed and collected pursu-2
ant to subsection (c) of that section. 3
(C) With respect to the development of any 4
information described in subparagraphs (A)(i) 5
and (B)— 6
(i) a list of the names, including titles, 7
occupations, and biographies, of all con-8
sultants (including international and do-9
mestic consultants) that assisted in that 10
development; 11
(ii)(I) a list of the academic institu-12
tions (including any international and do-13
mestic academic institutions) that assisted 14
in that development; and 15
(II) points of contact for each such 16
academic institution; 17
(iii)(I) a list of the nongovernmental 18
institutions (including any international 19
and domestic nongovernmental institu-20
tions) that assisted in that development; 21
and 22
(II) points of contact for each such 23
nongovernmental institution; and 24
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(iv) a list of any other organizations 1
the resources or personnel of which were 2
used in any way in that development. 3
(D) A description, including citations and 4
hyperlinks, of all studies used by the Adminis-5
trator to develop the information described in 6
subparagraphs (A)(i) and (B). 7
(E) A summary of all other information 8
collected and used by the Administrator to de-9
velop the information described in subpara-10
graphs (A)(i) and (B). 11
(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out para-12
graph (1), the Administrator shall, in consultation 13
with the owners and operators of applicable facilities 14
(as defined in section 136(d) of the Clean Air Act 15
(42 U.S.C. 7436(d)) with fewer than 2,500 full-time 16
employees, ensure that the documentation required 17
under that paragraph will allow operators subject to 18
a reporting requirement or charge under section 136 19
of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7436) to clearly un-20
derstand the reporting requirements and calculations 21
required under that section. 22
(c) R
ULEMAKINGREQUIREMENTS.—Except as other-23
wise provided in this section or an amendment made by 24
this section, any proposed regulation, rule, guidance, or 25
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other document required under this section or an amend-1
ment made by this section shall be subject to, as applica-2
ble— 3
(1) except as provided for in paragraph (2), the 4
notice and comment provisions of section 553 of title 5
5, United States Code; and 6
(2) a public comment period of not less than 7
120 days. 8
Æ
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