House Republicans are laying down a marker on energy policy in the new GOP-led Congress by prioritizing a bill that would prohibit a ban on fracking.
The measure is one of a dozen bills in the House rules package for the 119th Congress. Republicans are expected to adopt the rules package Friday, which would set up the individual bills for future House votes.
House leaders did not release the full text of the fracking legislation Thursday because it cannot be introduced until the new Congress begins Friday afternoon, but the description appears to mirror that of the “Protecting American Energy Production Act,” H.R. 1121, from retiring Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), which the House passed in March.
That bill proposed to bar the president from declaring a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing — the process used to extract natural gas — without authorization from Congress. It also included a messaging component expressing support for state-led regulation of fracking on state and private land.
