S. 4523 · 116th Congress
Natural Gas Blowout Prevention, Oversight, and Liability Act of 2020
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Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 116th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
D
MarkeySponsorNo cosponsors.
Natural Gas Blowout Prevention, Oversight, and Liability Act of 2020
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Aug 12, 2020
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.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: Natural Gas Blowout Prevention, Oversight, and Liability Act of 2020
Latest action (Aug 12, 2020): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Policy area: Energy · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Aug 12, 2020
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.