Protecting American Energy Production Act

The bill would prohibit the President from declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) — a technique that injects pressurized water, sand, and chemicals into rock formations to extract oil and gas — unless Congress passes a law authorizing that moratorium. It states this prohibition applies notwithstanding any other provision of law, meaning it would override other legal authorities a President might otherwise use to halt fracking.

The bill also expresses the sense of Congress that states, not the federal government, should maintain primary authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing on state and private lands. This sense-of-Congress provision is a statement of position rather than a binding legal requirement. The bill does not itself change any environmental, safety, or permitting rules governing fracking; it only restricts how a moratorium could be imposed.

Oil and natural gas producers that use hydraulic fracturing, the President and executive branch agencies that oversee energy and environmental policy, and state governments that regulate fracking on state and private lands. Communities near fracking operations and energy markets more broadly could also be affected by how future moratorium decisions are made.

If enacted, the bill would remove a tool future Presidents might otherwise use to unilaterally halt fracking, such as through executive action framed as an emergency or environmental measure, requiring instead an act of Congress. This would make any nationwide fracking moratorium significantly harder to impose and would reinforce state, rather than federal, control over fracking regulation.