As Congress continues to debate specifics of the budget reconciliation bill, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” environmental rights advocates are paying close attention to proposed changes to the Methane Emission Reduction Program.

The rule, implemented by former President Joe Biden, requires oil and gas operators to minimize leaks and burning of excess methane.

Ranjana Bhandari, executive director of the advocacy group Livable Arlington, said some lawmakers want to delay the implementation of the methane polluter fee.

“Some of these emissions can be curbed with technical fixes,” Bhandari pointed out. “This is a set of rules to get the industry to clean up a very large pollution which is accelerating climate change, it’s heating the planet, but it’s also causing very serious health issues.”

Livable Arlington was started in 2015 when the fracking boom in Tarrant County started. Bhandari noted there are 56 drill sites across the city, some within 300 feet of day care centers and homes.

Many of the larger oil and gas companies capture and sell methane but research shows smaller operators burn off excess natural gas, sending it into the atmosphere.

David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, said the Biden-era rule has the support of the American people.

“Seven in 10 people in the U.S. support charging a fee to hold polluters accountable for methane leaks,” Jenkins reported. “We’ve been taught our whole lives, everybody, whether you’re on the right or the left, you’ve been taught that you don’t waste stuff. You don’t waste food, you don’t waste fuel, you don’t waste electricity; you be responsible.”

Bhandari stressed eliminating or delaying the program will have negative consequences for the economy and the health of Texans.

“There’s the whole methane mitigation industry, those jobs would never happen, they’ll be lost,” Bhandari argued. “We lose on climate, we are wasting fossil fuel. And 1 million of us in Tarrant County live less than half a mile from oil and gas infrastructure.”

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