Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to ``Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources Review''

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, this partisan resolution is unnecessary for a number of reasons. At its core, this is a solution that is looking for a problem.

The oil industry already is voluntarily reducing methane emissions and the United States has led the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the last two decades. Innovation is the ultimate answer to cutting emissions. We cannot afford to stifle advancement.

As a Nation, we cannot regulate our way to a cleaner environment. Most importantly, new methane regulations are duplicative of existing Federal and State regulations under the Clean Air Act for volatile organic compounds known as VOCs.

The EPA determined in an earlier rulemaking that ``rescinding the methane limits will not actually change the amount of methane emissions reductions.''

This resolution is not about methane emissions or climate change. The truth is that we already regulate methane. The EPA and the States have strong standards in place for volatile organic compounds and methane.

The existing standards and the pollution control equipment installed at oil and gas facilities help to manage both methane and VOCs because they are both produced from the same source and have a similar chemistry and behavior.

The real intent of this misguided resolution is simple--the oil and gas sector is just the tip of the iceberg--the purpose is to give the EPA authority to use Section 111 of the Clean Air Act to regulate every other sector of our economy.

Congress must continue to embrace the bottom-up innovation that will result in leaps in efficiency far greater than any mandate, instead of expensive overregulation that will take money out of working Americans' pockets.

As a Nation, we can do better. As a Congress, we must do better.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in voting ``no'' on this resolution.
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Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Herrell).

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Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this is just the tip of the iceberg. EPA will use the resolution to clear the way for other sources without formally establishing that a pollutant significantly contributes to harmful air pollution as a predicate for new regulations. Manufacturing, paper, plastics, metals, and virtually every other industry in America certainly could be next.

We must not allow overregulation to crush the energy jobs that America wants and America needs.

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