A group of Republican lawmakers is jointly introducing legislation in both the House and Senate aimed at easing air pollution regulations for small oil and gas companies.
The bicameral legislation, obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner, would soften Clean Air Act rules for the oil and gas industry, marking the latest effort from Congress to deliver on President Donald Trump’s call to “drill, baby, drill,” while also propping up the administration’s broader deregulatory agenda.
The bills, both called the Protect Domestic Oil and Gas Small Business Act of 2026, are expected to be introduced in the House and Senate on Thursday by Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) and Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).
If passed, the legislation would amend the Clean Air Act to exempt small oil and gas producers from Environmental Protection Agency performance standards required under Section 111 of the law, including requirements for monitoring, reporting, detecting, and repairing leaks of greenhouse gases such as methane.
This would only apply to “marginal wells,” meaning an oil well site that has an average daily production of 15 barrels of oil or oil equivalent per day per well or less. For natural gas, a site must have an average daily production per well of 90,000 cubic feet or less to qualify for the exemption.
