NEWS: Sens. Schiff, Whitehouse Introduce Resolution to Strike Down Trump’s Latest Giveaway to Big Oil

Resolution would allow Congress to reject the extended deadlines given by the Trump administration to oil and gas companies for complying with methane emissions limits

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) are joining forces on a resolution to strike down the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) extension given to oil and gas companies, providing them another year and a half to avoid limits on emissions of methane and other pollutants without public input.

The EPA's extension for fossil fuel companies provides them another year and a half to comply with standards originally set in May 2024. Estimates provided by the EPA project an additional 3.8 million tons of methane pollution are expected as a result of this change.

"The Trump administration is hellbent on creating a legacy of more air pollution, more cancer and birth defects, and more favors to the worst actors in the fossil fuel industry. The American people should see where their representatives stand on giving Big Oil the green light to emit more toxic air pollutants," said Senator Schiff.

"By delaying methane standards for the oil and gas industry, the Trump Administration is giving fossil fuel companies license to poison us. Methane-which is a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide-also drives the formation of smog and pollutes the air our children breathe. Methane leaks raise energy prices as utilities pass the costs of 'lost' gas onto customers. Cutting these emissions should be a no-brainer. But yet again, and without any input from the public, Trump is corruptly siding with the biggest polluters and sticking American families with the consequences," said Ranking Member Whitehouse.

The Congressional Review Act resolution introduced by Schiff and Whitehouse, if approved by the Congress, would overturn the rule finalized by EPA on July 31 and prevent the EPA from issuing a similar rule.

The full text of the resolution can be found here.

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