Key Votes on Amendments to HR 3354

In considering HR 3354 Department of Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018 [Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018], the American Energy Alliance has identified the below three amendments offered to Division A as key votes.

NO on Amendment #20 offered by Reps. LoBiondo and Beyer. This amendment seeks to prevent energy exploration activities along the entire Atlantic seaboard. This sweeping prohibition is unjustified and premature. The administration has just begun the process of creating a new five-year leasing plan. It is important that the offshore Atlantic remain a part of this review.

YES on Amendment #100 offered by Rep. Mullin. This amendment seeks to eliminate the use of the so-called social cost of carbon. The social cost of carbon calculation is entirely notional and cannot be justified on scientific or economic grounds. During the creation process, the social cost of carbon models and calculations were manipulated to reach a desired end goal. The social cost of carbon designed by the previous administration should be discarded.

YES on Amendment #101 offered by Reps. Mullin and Perry. This amendment seeks to prohibit the implementation of the previous administration’s methane rule. The methane rule was designed and intended as a tool to strangle energy production on federal lands. The rule is unnecessary, given that methane emissions have been falling in recent years even as natural gas production has increased rapidly. Oil and gas producers already have an economic incentive to capture methane as it is a versatile product in its own right. This unjustified rule should be stopped.

AEA urges all members to support free markets and affordable energy by voting NO on Amendment #20 and YES on Amendments #100 and #101.  Should votes on these amendments occur, AEA will include each in its American Energy Scorecard.