S 4523
116th Congress
Senate
Energy
Accidents
Air quality
Civil actions and liability
Climate change and greenhouse gases
Congressional oversight
Emergency planning and evacuation
Environmental assessment, monitoring, research
Environmental regulatory procedures
Government information and archives
Government studies and investigations
Intergovernmental relations
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Oil and gas
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Natural Gas Blowout Prevention, Oversight, and Liability Act of 2020
Introduced: August 12, 2020
Introduced by:
Markey, Edward J.
Democratic
· Massachusetts
See on congress.gov
Everywhere this bill has been
2 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Aug 12, 2020
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Aug 12, 2020
Introduced in Senate
Plain-English summary
Natural Gas Blowout Prevention, Oversight, and Liability Act of 2020
This bill sets forth federal standards related to natural gas blowouts. A blowout is the loss of control of any well that leads to the release of combusted or uncombusted natural gas into the atmosphere.
Specifically, the bill
- requires operators of wells to report natural gas blowouts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within 72 hours after a blowout occurs;
- directs the EPA to establish and maintain a public database of all blowouts;
- imposes penalties for natural gas or flared natural gas that is released as a result of a well blowout, based on the volume released;
- establishes a grant program to reduce the scale and regularity of blowouts and the burden to states and local governments with respect to emergency responses to blowouts; and
- directs the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board to submit a report that describes each natural gas blowout from the past 10 years and includes recommendations to reduce the number of blowouts.
What's happening now
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Committees of jurisdiction
1