If you set out to make life more expensive and less convenient for Americans, what would you do differently than most of what the Biden administration did? 

One of the things you might do - and the Biden administration did - was to make energy more expensive, which makes everything more expensive. One of the ways the Biden administration went about this was with the Waste Emissions Charge, which was essentially a tax on natural gas. You know, that clean-burning fuel that heats many of our homes and cooks our food. But now, thanks to the Congressional Review Act and President Trump, that tax has been sent packing.

America’s natural gas industry celebrated Monday after President Donald Trump signed into law a resolution repealing Biden-era fees on methane emissions.

The Waste Emissions Charge, which Republicans say is the equivalent of a natural gas tax, was authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency in November 2024.

The resolution rescinds that regulation under the Congressional Review Act. The CRA legislation gives Congress the authority to repeal regulations issued during the final months of a previous administration.

House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., called the repeal “a victory for the American businesses and families who would have been forced to bear the cost of the Biden-Harris Administration’s natural gas tax.”

“It’s time to restore American energy dominance by harnessing innovation and producing the natural gas needed to support our electric grid,” Guthrie added.

This is an unmitigated good result. The cost of energy affects everything in the economy; it is factored into everything we do. High energy costs are one of the most damaging things to a country, prosperity-wise, and the Biden administration seemed determined to raise energy prices and keep them high, mostly using regulations and fees - like the Waste Emissions Charge.

Energy experts who testified before Congress in February said the high energy prices during Joe Biden’s presidency directly resulted from increased environmental regulations on energy production. The regulations slowed down domestic energy production and consequently led to increased costs, they said.

This is belaboring the obvious, of course. This was done, of course, in the nebulous cause of climate change, for which the Biden administration was willing to sacrifice American prosperity, not to mention our comfortable, technological lifestyle.

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The Congressional Budget Office weighed in, re-stating the also-obvious notion that environmental groups will no doubt be upset by this action. That's fine; they can be upset. Most Americans will be happy to not have to take out a bank loan to pay their heating bills. Pleadings from the environmentalists on this specific issue, we are satisfied to note, fell on deaf ears:

An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows that “Charging for methane emissions leads to an increase in the price of natural gas and a decrease in the quantity of natural gas produced and consumed.”

But environmental groups have argued that the legislation will increase energy costs and disrupt efforts to reduce emissions of a potent greenhouse gas. Nearly 80 environmentalist groups recently sent a letter urging lawmakers to keep the regulation, about to take effect, in place.

So much for their letter. And so much for their commitment to the cause:

The Center Square reached out to multiple environmental groups but received no response in time for publication.

You don't say.