Senate Bill 4523
116th Congress(2019-2020)
Natural Gas Blowout Prevention, Oversight, and Liability Act of 2020
Introduced
Introduced in Senate on Aug 12, 2020
Origin Chamber
Senate
Type
Bill
Bill
The primary form of legislative measure used to propose law. Depending on the chamber of origin, bills begin with a designation of either H.R. or S. Joint resolution is another form of legislative measure used to propose law.
Bill Number
4523
Congress
116
Policy Area
Energy
Energy
Primary focus of measure is all sources and supplies of energy, including alternative energy sources, oil and gas, coal, nuclear power; efficiency and conservation; costs, prices, and revenues; electric power transmission; public utility matters.
No Senate votes have been held for this bill.
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.
August 12, 2020
08/12/2020
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
08/12/2020
Introduced in Senate
Public Record
Record Updated
Jan 11, 2023 1:45:16 PM