Jul 14, 2016 IPAA Applauds House Passage of Interior Appropriations Legislation
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) President and CEO Barry Russell issued the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives approved H.R. 5538, the “Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2017” by a vote of 231-196:
“This appropriations bill undoes some of the excessive regulations hurled at the industry by the Obama Administration during its final year in office. The legislation contains several of IPAA’s key priorities, including prohibiting the Interior Department from implementing its ‘Washington knows best’ approach to regulate hydraulic fracturing and its ‘one size fits all’ mandate on offshore drilling, prohibiting enforcement of the Interior Department’s proposal to address methane emissions, and providing reasonable implementation of the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone.
“In recent years, the U.S. oil and natural gas industry has boosted our economy with hundreds of thousands of American jobs, helped our nation crawl out of a lengthy recession, transformed our nation’s energy security, and serves as the second largest source of revenue to the U.S. Treasury behind income taxes.
“One of the fundamental responsibilities of Congress, as outlined by the U.S. Constitution, is to appropriate funds for the government to operate. Any opportunity to pass an appropriations bill through regular order, with the input of the people’s elected representatives, is simply good governance. IPAA applauds the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the Interior Appropriations bill in a fair and transparent fashion benefiting all Americans. We thank Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY), Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA), and the House Leadership for their commitment to taking up this legislation and ensuring an open debate process.
“IPAA urges the U.S. Senate to consider and approve this important appropriations bill.”
About the Independent Petroleum Association of America
The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) is a national upstream trade association representing thousands of independent oil and natural gas producers and service companies across the United States. Independent producers develop 90 percent of the nation’s oil and natural gas wells. These companies account for 54 percent of America’s oil production, 85 percent of its natural gas production, and support over 2.1 million American jobs. Learn more about IPAA by visiting www.ipaa.org and following @IPAAaccess on Twitter.
