Empower Energy Exporting Communities Act

New fund for port-area communities

If enacted, this bill would create an Oil and Gas Community Trust Fund in the U.S. Treasury. Each year it would appropriate amounts equal to 3% of the net revenues received under section 11 from specified oil and gas companies for taxable years beginning after enactment. The Secretary would be able to spend the money, without further appropriation and with no fiscal year limit, to pay eligible counties, parishes, municipalities, or Tribal communities for infrastructure and public services. A community would be eligible if the Secretary finds it is within 50 miles of a major export port, and annual payments to any 50-mile port region could not exceed that region’s share of national exports as calculated by the Secretary. The bill would define a "specified oil or gas company" as a corporation whose gross receipts are largely tied to production, refining, processing, transportation, or distribution of oil or gas.