Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios
The Congressional Review Act resolution passed by both chambers this week would nix the Biden implementing rule for the IRA's methane fee — but the fee remains in statute.
Why it matters: Even though Hill Republicans have succeeded at rolling back the fee, they still have to actually repeal it.
Catch up quick: The Senate passed the resolution 52–47 Thursday afternoon.
- The House passed it 220–206. Rep. Joyce Beatty voted "present," and six Democratic moderates supported it.
- Technically, the two chambers passed separate, identical CRA resolutions, but it's still likely to get sent to President Trump and signed.
Zoom in: The fee, part of the IRA's Methane Emissions Reduction Program, applies only to the largest oil and gas operators.
- It's paired with roughly $1.5 billion in grants and incentives administered via EPA to help companies reduce their methane emissions.
- Tossing out the regulation would eliminate EPA's ability to collect the fee, but the obligation would still exist.
- Senate sponsor John Hoeven said that while the program is a "dead dog" for the Trump administration, Republicans still have another step: "To not have it be resurrectable, then we would also repeal the underlying law, which we'll do in reconciliation."
Between the lines: The CRA stipulates that agencies can't issue a rule that is "substantially the same" as what has been rolled back by Congress.
- There's relatively little precedent for what that means in practice.
- If Republicans aren't successful at repealing the underlying statute, there could be some uncertainty moving forward, and a future Democratic administration could come to collect.
- "Unfortunately, I think this was a flub by the Biden administration to do a rule when they had been told by counsel at OMB and at EPA that it was a self-executing statute," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told reporters. "They didn't have to subject us to the vulnerability of this CRA."
