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Protect Domestic Oil and Gas Small Business Act of 2026
To amend the Clean Air Act to exclude marginal wells from certain standards of performance and other requirements under such Act, and for other purposes.
Summary
The bill would exempt low-producing oil and natural gas wells from most Clean Air Act standards and regulatory requirements. Oil wells producing 15 barrels per day or less, and natural gas wells producing 90,000 cubic feet per day or less, would be excluded from EPA performance standards, monitoring, reporting, leak detection, and emission measurement requirements. States could revise their environmental plans to remove standards for these marginal wells, with automatic approval if the EPA doesn't respond within 180 days. Any ongoing enforcement actions against marginal wells would be terminated, and the EPA would have 180 days to update its regulations to implement these exemptions.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
20 cosponsors
- Rep. Arrington, Jodey C. [R-TX-19] (R-TX)
- Rep. Balderson, Troy [R-OH-12] (R-OH)
- Rep. Bice, Stephanie I. [R-OK-5] (R-OK)
- Rep. Carey, Mike [R-OH-15] (R-OH)
- Rep. Crenshaw, Dan [R-TX-2] (R-TX)
- Rep. Ellzey, Jake [R-TX-6] (R-TX)
- Rep. Estes, Ron [R-KS-4] (R-KS)
- Rep. Evans, Gabe [R-CO-8] (R-CO)
- Rep. Fedorchak, Julie [R-ND-At Large] (R-ND)
- Rep. Goldman, Craig A. [R-TX-12] (R-TX)
- Rep. Hunt, Wesley [R-TX-38] (R-TX)
- Rep. Langworthy, Nicholas A. [R-NY-23] (R-NY)
- Rep. Latta, Robert E. [R-OH-5] (R-OH)
- Rep. Lucas, Frank D. [R-OK-3] (R-OK)
- Rep. Mann, Tracey [R-KS-1] (R-KS)
- Rep. McClintock, Tom [R-CA-5] (R-CA)
- Rep. Moran, Nathaniel [R-TX-1] (R-TX)
- Rep. Schmidt, Derek [R-KS-2] (R-KS)
- Rep. Weber, Randy K. Sr. [R-TX-14] (R-TX)
- Rep. Williams, Roger [R-TX-25] (R-TX)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to August Pfluger’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for August Pfluger → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- May 21, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. · house
- May 21, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 21, 2026
Mr. Pfluger (for himself, Mr. Arrington, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. Latta, Mr. Ellzey, Mr. Goldman of Texas, Mrs. Fedorchak, Mr. Balderson, Mr. Williams of Texas, Mr. Evans of Colorado, Mr. Mann, and Mr. Estes) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Clean Air Act to exclude marginal wells from certain standards of performance and other requirements under such Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Protect Domestic Oil and Gas Small Business Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. EXCLUSION OF MARGINAL WELLS FROM STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE AND OTHER CLEAN AIR ACT REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Exclusions.—Section 111 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7411) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(k)(1) No standard of performance or guideline prescribed by the Administrator under subsection (b) or (d)(2), including in any regulation issued by the Administrator under either such subsection, and no requirement for monitoring, reporting, record-keeping, conducting a fugitive emission survey, detecting or repairing leaks, estimating or measuring emissions, or any other related requirement prescribed in regulations issued by the Administrator under this section, shall apply with respect to any marginal well or, as applicable, owner or operator thereof.
“(2) The Administrator may not require any plan submitted by a State to the Administrator under subsection (d)(1) to include a standard of performance applicable to marginal wells or, as applicable, owners or operators thereof.
“(3) If a State makes a revision to a plan submitted to the Administrator under subsection (d)(1) to make a standard of performance inapplicable to marginal wells or, as applicable, owners or operators thereof, the Administrator, or a designee thereof, shall within 180 days, approve, disapprove, approve in part, or disapprove in part such revision without further review. Should the Administrator fail to act by the end of the 180 day period, the revision shall be deemed approved.
“(4) In this subsection:
“(A) The term ‘associated equipment’, with respect to an oil or natural gas well site, includes any multiphase separator, treater, knockout, gun barrel, test vessel, pump, storage vessel, compressor, process controller, dehydrator, gas shack, meter, heater, methanol pump, natural gas liquid loadout or storage vessel, gathering line, flowline, dump line, transmission line, water tank, oil tank, gunbarrel, or storage tank, or any other equipment used in association with such well site.
“(B) The term ‘marginal well’ means a well site the average daily production of which, over the preceding calendar year, is—
“(i) in the case of an oil well site—
“(I) 15 barrels of oil per day per well or less; or
“(II) 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day per well or less, using a conversion factor of 6,000 cubic feet per barrel of oil equivalent; or
“(ii) in the case of a natural gas well site, 90,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day per well or less.
“(C) The term ‘well site’ includes any well located at a given site, and associated equipment, but does not extend beyond the point of custody transfer of natural gas or oil produced from such a well.”.
(b) Implementation.—
(1) Conforming revisions.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall revise such regulations and guidance as may be necessary to implement subsection (k) of section 111 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7411), as added by this Act.
(2) Pending enforcement actions.—Any action to enforce a standard of performance or requirement specified in subsection
(k)(1) of section 111 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7411), as added by this Act, with respect to a marginal well that is pending as of the date of the enactment of this Act shall be terminated. <all>
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