WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, issued the following statement after passage of the Republican reconciliation bill. With Chairman Capito’s support, the legislation passed and now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Today, the Senate moved President Trump’s agenda forward and acted on the mandate given to Congress by the American people. Included in this bill are provisions I worked to craft through the EPW Committee that will lower energy costs for American families, return remaining taxpayer dollars spent recklessly by Democrats, and create more efficiency for infrastructure investments into our communities. Americans need reliable and affordable energy, wasteful spending needs to be cut, and our country needs to be able to build again. Together, we passed legislation to do that and more for American families and communities across our great nation,” Chairman Capito said. 

EPW HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDED IN THIS LEGISLATION:

  • Stops the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) natural gas tax for 10 years, bringing certainty to American energy producers, preserving energy jobs, and incentivizing domestic production that will lead to lower costs for American consumers.
  • Rescinds unspent dollars from the IRA in EPW’s jurisdiction that were put towards duplicative and wasteful initiatives with little oversight or accountability to the American taxpayer.
  • Repeals the IRA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and rescinds all of that program’s unobligated dollars.
  • Creates an opt-in fee program at the Council on Environmental Quality for expedited environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act.The fee is set at 125 percent of the costs to prepare the environmental document or supervision and preparation of the environmental document when the project sponsor opts to prepare the document. Once the fee is paid, the provision sets a one-year timeline for completion of an Environmental Impact Statement and six-month timeline for an Environmental Assessment. 

Click HERE to view a section-by-section on EPW’s portion of this legislation.

Click HERE to view a one-pager on EPW’s portion of this legislation.

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