United States S 4619: Protect Domestic Oil and Gas Small Business Act of 2026

Summary

This bill exempts low-producing oil and natural gas wells, called "marginal wells," from Clean Air Act environmental standards and monitoring requirements. A marginal well is defined as one producing 15 barrels of oil per day or less, or 90,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day or less. The exemption removes obligations for these small wells and their operators to comply with emission controls, leak detection, reporting, and other air quality standards that would otherwise apply.

Bill Text

II
119TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 4619
To amend the Clean Air Act to exclude marginal wells from certain standards
of performance and other requirements under that Act, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY 21, 2026
Ms. LUMMIS (for herself, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. DAINES, Mr.
MORAN, Mr. RICKETTS, and Mr. LEE) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and
Public Works
A BILL
To amend the Clean Air Act to exclude marginal wells from
certain standards of performance and other requirements
under that Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protect Domestic Oil 4
and Gas Small Business Act of 2026’’. 5
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•S 4619 IS
SEC. 2. EXCLUSION OF MARGINAL WELLS FROM STAND-1
ARDS OF PERFORMANCE AND OTHER CLEAN 2
AIR ACT REQUIREMENTS. 3
(a) EXCLUSIONS.—Section 111 of the Clean Air Act 4
(42 U.S.C. 7411) is amended by adding at the end the 5
following: 6
‘‘(k) EXEMPTION FOR MARGINAL WELLS.— 7
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 8
‘‘(A) ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT.—The term 9
‘associated equipment’, with respect to an oil or 10
natural gas well site, includes any multiphase 11
separator, treater, knockout, gun barrel, test 12
vessel, pump, storage vessel, compressor, proc-13
ess controller, dehydrator, gas shack, meter, 14
heater, methanol pump, natural gas liquid 15
loadout or storage vessel, gathering line, 16
flowline, dump line, transmission line, water 17
tank, oil tank, gunbarrel, or storage tank, or 18
any other equipment used in association with 19
that well site. 20
‘‘(B) MARGINAL WELL.—The term ‘mar-21
ginal well’ means an oil or natural gas well site 22
the average daily production of which, over the 23
preceding calendar year, is— 24
‘‘(i) in the case of an oil well site— 25
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•S 4619 IS
‘‘(I) 15 barrels of oil per day per 1
well or less; or 2
‘‘(II) 15 barrels of oil equivalent 3
per day per well or less, using a con-4
version factor of 6,000 cubic feet per 5
barrel of oil equivalent; or 6
‘‘(ii) in the case of a natural gas well 7
site, 90,000 cubic feet of natural gas per 8
day per well or less. 9
‘‘(C) WELL SITE.—The term ‘well site’ in-10
cludes any well located at a given site, and as-11
sociated equipment, but does not extend beyond 12
the point of custody transfer of natural gas or 13
oil produced from such a well. 14
‘‘(2) EXEMPTION.—No standard of perform-15
ance or guideline prescribed by the Administrator 16
under subsection (b) or (d)(2), including in any reg-17
ulation issued by the Administrator under either 18
subsection, and no requirement for monitoring, re-19
porting, recordkeeping, conducting a fugitive emis-20
sion survey, detecting or repairing leaks, estimating 21
or measuring emissions, or any other related re-22
quirement prescribed in regulations issued by the 23
Administrator under this section shall apply with re-24
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•S 4619 IS
spect to any marginal well or, as applicable, the 1
owner or operator of a marginal well. 2
‘‘(3) NO REQUIREMENT IN STATE PLANS.—The 3
Administrator may not require any plan submitted 4
by a State to the Administrator under subsection 5
(d)(1) to include a standard of performance applica-6
ble to marginal wells or, as applicable, owners or op-7
erators of marginal wells. 8
‘‘(4) EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION.— 9
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—If a State makes a re-10
vision to a plan submitted to the Administrator 11
under subsection (d)(1) to make a standard of 12
performance inapplicable to marginal wells or, 13
as applicable, owners or operators of marginal 14
wells, the Administrator shall, not later than 15
180 days after the date on which the revision 16
is submitted, approve, disapprove, approve in 17
part, or disapprove in part that revision without 18
further review. 19
‘‘(B) DEEMED APPROVAL.—If the Admin-20
istrator fails to act on a revision described in 21
subparagraph (A) by the end of the 180-day pe-22
riod described in that subparagraph, the revi-23
sion shall be considered approved.’’. 24
(b) IMPLEMENTATION.— 25
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•S 4619 IS
(1) CONFORMING REVISIONS.—Not later than 1
180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the 2
Administrator of the Environmental Protection 3
Agency shall revise such regulations and guidance as 4
may be neces