crs_reports: R48906

Congressional Research Service reports with summaries, authors, and topic classifications.

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R48906 Inflation Reduction Act Methane Emissions Charge: Overview and Considerations for Policymakers 2026-04-15T04:00:00Z 2026-04-16T10:23:13Z Active Reports Jonathan L. Ramseur   On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed H.R. 5376 (P.L. 117-169), a budget reconciliation measure commonly referred to as the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” (IRA). Among other provisions, IRA amended the Clean Air Act (CAA) by adding Section 136. Section 136 directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose and collect a “waste emissions charge” (WEC) for methane emissions from specific types of facilities that are required to report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting Program (GHGRP). This charge is the first time the federal government has directly imposed a charge, fee, or tax on GHG emissions. Since its inception, the methane charge has received considerable attention from some Members of Congress and a range of stakeholders. Some policymakers have raised concerns about economic impacts resulting from the methane charge, including impacts on natural gas prices. Some policymakers are concerned about the charge in the context of EPA regulations to address methane emissions from the same categories of new and existing facilities. Others point out that methane mitigation could be a key component of U.S. climate policy due to methane’s shorter-term climate impacts compared to other GHGs. On November 18, 2024, EPA issued a final rulemaking to implement the WEC. EPA’s WEC rulemaking received attention under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). In February 2025, both the House and the Senate passed a joint resolution (H.J.Res. 35) disapproving of EPA’s WEC rule. President Trump signed the measure on March 14, 2025, enacting the resolution (P.L. 119-2). The CRA disapproval does not alter the statutory requirements of CAA Section 136 that direct EPA to implement the WEC. Accordingly, EPA may have to determine how to comply with Section 136 without adopting a rule that is substantially the same as the disapproved rule in violation of the CRA. In the 119th Congress, P.L. 119-21, a budget reconciliation measure sometimes known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which was signed by the President on July 4, 2025, altered the start date for the WEC. When first established by IRA, Section 136 directed EPA to start imposing the WEC on methane emissions released in 2024. P.L. 119-21 changed the WEC effective date from 2024 to 2034. CAA Section 136 includes several provisions that narrow the scope of facilities and methane emissions that would be subject to the WEC. In 2024, EPA estimated that after these provisions were considered, the WEC would apply to approximately 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) of methane emissions. These emissions represented 0.3% of total U.S. GHG emissions in 2022. In addition, the WEC is statutorily linked to an EPA CAA Section 111 rulemaking that applies to methane emissions from many of the same facilities that are subject to the WEC. The CAA Section 136 WEC provisions include a conditional exemption from the WEC based on the development of this CAA Section 111 rulemaking. EPA finalized this CAA Section 111 rulemaking in March 2024. EPA published a final rule in December 2025 that extends the compliance deadlines provided in the 2024 final rule. Until this CAA Section 111 rule is in effect in all states, the conditional exemption from the WEC would not be available. The extension of the WEC effective date in P.L. 119-21 provides additional time for this CAA Section 111 rulemaking to go into effect before the WEC is scheduled to take effect in 2034. A range of factors could play a role in determining the scope of emissions subject to the WEC and its ultimate effects, including (1) the EPA CAA Section 111 Regulation; (2) other federal climate and energy policies; and (3) international policies affecting U.S. natural gas facility operations. The recent statutory and regulatory developments raise a number of questions and considerations for policymakers regarding the WEC and its implementation. For example, one consideration concerns the consequences of the 2025 CRA joint resolution, which disapproved EPA’s 2024 WEC rule. It is uncertain what effects the enacted joint resolution will have on the implementation of the WEC, which is required by statute. Another consideration for policymakers pertains to the CAA Section 111 rulemaking that governs methane emissions from many of the same oil and gas facilities that are subject to the WEC. The scope and implementation of the WEC are directly linked with the CAA Section 111 rulemaking. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R48906/R48906.1.pdf https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/HTML/R48906.html

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