Transparency and Honesty in Energy Regulations Act of 2016
This bill prohibits the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from considering the social cost of carbon or methane as part of any cost benefit analysis, unless a federal law is enacted authorizing such consideration.
The EPA must report on the number of proposed and final rulemakings, guidance documents, and agency actions since January 2009 that use either of those social costs, including as part of any cost benefit analysis required under Executive Order 12866 and other relevant authorities.
[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5668 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
114th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5668
To prohibit the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency from taking the social cost of carbon
or the social cost of methane into account when taking any action, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 7, 2016
Mr. Jenkins of West Virginia (for himself, Mr. Womack, Mr. Culberson,
Mr. LaHood, and Mr. Mullin) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency from taking the social cost of carbon
or the social cost of methane into account when taking any action, 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 and Honesty in Energy
Regulations Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following--
(1) As a tool to justify Federal actions by the Department
of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (hereinafter
in this section referred to as the ``EPA'') addressing
greenhouse gas emissions, including those regulating or
prohibiting the exploration, mining, production, and use of
coal as well as other fossil fuels as energy sources, the
Social Cost of Carbon (hereinafter in this section referred to
as the ``SCC'') and the Social Cost of Methane (hereinafter in
this section referred to as the ``SCM'') in theory represent
the hypothetical cost of an incremental ton of carbon dioxide
(CO<INF>2</INF>) or methane emissions in a given year.
(2) Office of Management and Budget (hereinafter in this
section referred to as the ``OMB'') Circular A-4 guides Federal
agencies on the development of regulatory impact analysis
required under Executive Order 12866 as well as other
authorities, instructing agencies to include discount rates of
3 and 7 percent while also evaluating the cost and benefits
that accrue to citizens and residents of the United States.
(3) First developed in 2009 by an interagency working
group, including the Department of Energy and the EPA, the SCC
estimates fail to comply with OMB Circular A-4 prescribed
discount rates of 3 and 7 percent.
(4) While OMB Circular A-4 specifies that an evaluation of
the global effects, when undertaken, is to be reported
separately from domestic costs and benefits, the SCC instead
calculated the global benefits in lieu of and not in addition
to the domestic effects.
(5) The use of the SCC estimates in Department of Energy
and EPA rulemakings prior to any opportunity for public notice
and comment violated not only scientific peer-review
requirements but also the President's commitment to transparent
and open government as outlined in his January 21, 2009,
memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies.
(6) In July 2015, as part of a revision of the SCC in
response to over 150 substantive comments and in acknowledgment
of the faulty process by which the SCC estimates were
developed, the OMB requested the National Academies of Science,
Engineering and Medicine (hereinafter in this section referred
to as the ``NAS'') review and make recommendations for the
improvement of the SCC estimates.
(7) Shortly after the commencement of the NAS review, the
EPA, without appropriate peer review and an opportunity for
public notice and comment, utilized the EPA-developed SCM
estimates in justifying the costs and benefits of the September
2015 proposed and recently finalized rules under the Clean Air
Act for methane emissions from new, modified, and reconstructed
sources in the oil and gas sector.
(8) Continued use by the Department of Energy and the EPA
of the SCC and the SCM ignores sound science in order to
eliminate the exploration, mining, production, and use of our
abundant domestic sources of fossil fuel energy.
(9) The Department of Energy and EPA regulations, which are
costing American families billions of dollars per year, are
being justified in large part by SCC and SCM estimates.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON CONSIDERING THE SOCIAL COST OF CARBON AND THE
SOCIAL COST OF METHANE.
The Secretary of Energy, when acting under any authority, and the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, when acting under
the authority of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.), may not
consider the social cost of carbon or the social cost of methane as
part of any cost benefit analysis required under law or under Executive
Order 12866 or 13563, in any rulemaking, in the issuance of any
guidance, or in taking any other agency action, or as a justification
for any rulemaking, guidance document, or agency action, unless a
Federal law is enacted, after the date of enactment of this Act,
explicitly authorizing such consideration.
SEC. 4. REPORT OF THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE EPA.
Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act,
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in
coordination and consultation with the Secretary of Energy, the
Secretary of the Interior, and the Council on Environmental Quality
shall submit a report to the Committees on Energy and Commerce and on
Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committees on
the Environment and Public Works and on Energy and Natural Resources of
the Senate, detailing the number of proposed and final rulemakings,
guidance documents, and agency actions since January 2009 that use the
social cost of carbon or the social cost of methane, including as part
of any cost benefit analysis required under Executive Order 12866 and
other relevant authorities.
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) The term ``social cost of carbon'' means--
(A) the social cost of carbon as described in--
(i) the document entitled ``Technical
Support Document: Social Cost of Carbon for
Regulatory Impact Analysis Under Executive
Order 12866'' published by the Interagency
Working Group on Social Cost of Carbon, United
States Government, in February 2010; or
(ii) the document entitled ``Technical
Support Document: Technical Update of the
Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact
Analysis Under Executive Order 12866''
published by the Interagency Working Group on
Social Cost of Carbon, United States
Government, in May 2013, and revised in
November 2013 and July 2015, or any other
successor or substantially related document; or
(B) any other estimate of the monetized damages
associated with an incremental increase in carbon
dioxide emissions in a given year.
(2) The term ``social cost of methane'' means the estimate
of the social cost of methane--
(A) as described in--
(i) the proposed rule entitled ``Oil and
Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New
and Modified Sources'' published by the
Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal
Register on September 18, 2015 (80 Fed. Reg.
56593);
(ii) the final rule entitled ``Oil and
Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New,
Reconstructed, and Modified Sources'' published
by the Environmental Protection Agency in the
Federal Register on June 3, 2016 (81 Fed. Reg.
35824); or
(iii) the ``Regulatory Impact Analysis of
the Final Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission
Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified
Sources'' prepared by the Environmental
Protection Agency, Office of Air and Radiation,
in May 2016, and identified by docket ID number
EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0505-7630; or
(B) any other successor or substantially related
estimate.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
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