[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4126 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4126

  To provide for the accurate reporting of fossil fuel production and 
          emissions from public lands, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 25, 2017

 Mr. Lowenthal (for himself, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Deutch, Mr. Curbelo 
 of Florida, and Ms. Tsongas) introduced the following bill; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide for the accurate reporting of fossil fuel production and 
          emissions from public lands, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Transparency in Energy Production 
Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. ONLINE PUBLICATION OF CARBON EMISSIONS.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of the Interior shall make available 
to the public through the internet--
            (1) information that describes for all covered operations--
                    (A) the aggregate amount of each fossil fuel, by 
                type and by State, produced under Federal leases; and
                    (B) for gas reported, the portion and source of 
                such amount that was released by each of venting, 
                flaring, and fugitive release;
            (2) information that accurately describes the estimated 
        amounts of existing fossil fuel resources on Federal lands 
        under lease for the production of fossil fuels, and of Federal 
        lands that have potential for such leasing; and
            (3) information that describes the amount and sources of 
        energy, in megawatts, produced from operating solar, wind, and 
        geothermal projects on Federal lands under lease for the 
        production of renewable energy.
    (b) Format.--Information made available under this section shall be 
presented in a format that--
            (1) translates such amounts and portions into emissions of 
        metric tons of greenhouse gases expressed in carbon-dioxide 
        equivalent using both the 20-year and 100-year Global Warming 
        Potential-weighted emission values;
            (2) for energy produced from solar, wind, and geothermal 
        projects, includes an estimate of the greenhouse gas emissions 
        that would result from production of the same amount of energy 
        from fossil fuel resources; and
            (3) allows--
                    (A) downloading in a machine readable format; and
                    (B) accessing the information without payment of 
                any fee or other charge.
    (c) Data Publication Frequency.--The data made available under this 
section shall be updated at least annually.

SEC. 3. ACCURATE MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING OF METHANE EMISSIONS FROM 
              FEDERAL LANDS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, if the Secretary of the Interior determines that 
revisions or promulgation of rules are needed to implement section 2 
with regard to methane emissions, the Secretary shall initiate a 
process under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 
(30 U.S.C. 1711 et seq.), the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et 
seq.), or other applicable law to promulgate regulations to require 
accurate measuring and reporting to the Secretary, by each holder of a 
lease for the production of fossil fuels on Federal land, of the actual 
amount of methane gas produced under such lease, including all such gas 
not sold by or on behalf of the lessee.
    (b) Reporting of Gases.--The rules shall include requirements for 
reporting by holders of leases, to the maximum extent possible, the 
amount and source of all vented, flared, and fugitive releases of gas 
resulting from the production of fossil fuels from Federal lands.

SEC. 4. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Every 2 years, the Secretary shall submit a report to Congress that 
includes--
            (1) efforts underway by the Department of the Interior to 
        decrease greenhouse gas emissions from covered operations on 
        Federal lands and waters;
            (2) plans for future reductions in greenhouse gas emissions 
        from covered operations on Federal lands and waters; and
            (3) the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reductions 
        resulting from such efforts and plans that have been observed 
        during the period covered by the report, and the amount of such 
        reductions that are expected in the future.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Covered operations.--The term ``covered operations'' 
        means all fossil fuel operations that are subject to the 
        mineral leasing laws or title V of the Federal Land Policy and 
        Management Act of 1976 (30 U.S.C. 1761 et seq.), regardless of 
        size, including production, storage, gathering, processing, 
        transportation, and handling operations.
            (2) Flaring.--The term ``flaring'' means the intentional 
        and controlled burning of gas that occurs in the course of oil 
        and gas or coal operations.
            (3) Fossil fuel.--The term ``fossil fuel'' means all 
        natural fuels, including oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, 
        and coal.
            (4) Fugitive release.--The term ``fugitive release'' means 
        the unintentional and uncontrolled release of gas into the 
        atmosphere in the course of oil and gas or coal operations.
            (5) Global warming potential-weighted emission.--The term 
        ``Global Warming Potential-weighted emission'' means the ratio 
        of the time-integrated radiative forcing from the instantaneous 
        release of 1 kilogram of a trace substance relative to that of 
        1 kilogram of carbon dioxide, measured in metric tons of carbon 
        dioxide equivalent for each greenhouse gas according to the 
        most recent, and any subsequent, decisions by the 
        Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regarding global 
        warming potentials.
            (6) Resources.--The term ``resources'' means oil, gas, and 
        coal resources, both identified and inferred, that are both 
        technically recoverable and economically recoverable using the 
        range of past, and predicted future, commodity prices.
            (7) Venting.--The term ``venting'' means the intentional 
        and controlled release of gas into the atmosphere in the course 
        of oil and gas operations.
            (8) Produced and production.--The terms ``produced'' and 
        ``production'' mean extracted, mined, withdrawn, sold, stored, 
        released (including release by venting, flaring, or fugitive 
        release), flared, used for beneficial purposes, or otherwise 
        emitted during production.
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