Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has urged Congress to reject “burdensome legislation that would increase fees on energy producers and hit American consumers with even greater price hikes as heating bills surge this winter.”
Carr announced the news in an emailed press release Friday. He said he and 19 other state attorneys general sent a letter to Congress on Thursday.
The letter asked leadership for two U.S. Senate committees to oppose legislation that would charge oil and natural gas producers $1,500 to $1,800 per ton of methane emissions above certain thresholds.
“This winter, as natural gas prices surge, Americans will face costly heating bills. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association predicts that natural gas bills could be 30 percent higher this winter than last. Heating bills in some markets could spike even higher. These soaring prices will add to the steep amounts—the highest since 2014—that Americans are paying at the pump. And all these price jumps come after a COVID-19 pandemic that caused utility arrearages to reach record levels. In short, Americans are hurting,” according to the letter.
“Given all this, we would expect Congress to be focused on affordable energy solutions. Yet Congress is instead considering imposing additional fees on the oil and gas industry. In the Senate, the Methane Emissions Reduction Act proposes to charge oil and gas producers $1,800 per ton of methane emissions beginning in 2023. A similar provision in the House’s version of the Build Back Better Act proposes a $1,500 ‘fee’ —really, a tax—for each ton of methane emissions.”
Carr and the other attorneys general said that the new tax will adversely impact 155,000 jobs, force retail prices to rise, and feed inflation into other sectors of the economy.
The attorneys general asked members of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works and the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to focus on affordable energy solutions.
Georgia joined the West Virginia-led letter with attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
