Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe recently joined 12 Republican senators to introduce companion legislation and the Transparency and Honesty in Energy Regulations Act, a bill to prohibit the federal government from using the flawed social cost of carbon, social cost of methane, social cost of nitrous oxide, or the social cost of any other greenhouse gas metrics in the rulemaking process. Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford and others joined Inhofe in introducing the bill.
“President Biden and his administration are so focused on peddling their far-left policies, they can’t be bothered to take time to address real issues like the border crisis or inflation,” said Inhofe. “Their development of the social cost of greenhouse gases like methane, carbon and nitrous oxide is severely flawed, and using it to inform the energy and environmental regulatory process will increase costs on American families. I am glad to join Sen. Lankford in introducing legislation which prevents the Executive Branch from using this flawed metric to thwart the needed construction of energy infrastructure like natural gas pipelines and energy export projects around the nation.”
“Oklahomans want clean air, land, and water. But the ‘social cost of carbon’ was created without transparency for the public or the industries it impacts. It has no basis in reality,” said Lankford. “The social cost of carbon has a big impact on every Oklahoma family and their pocketbook since it is used to justify many parts of Democrats’ illegitimate, progressive climate-change scheme that increases the cost of gasoline, electricity, and other goods. The Supreme Court recently determined in West Virginia v. EPA that the EPA may not cap greenhouse gas emissions because Congress did not provide the agency with that authority. In the same way, the social cost of carbon metric is clearly outside the scope of EPA’s regulatory authority, and our bill ensures they stop using it.”
If enacted, S. 4596 would prohibit the U.S. Energy Secretary, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the U.S. Transportation Secretary, the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from considering, in taking any action on the social costs of carbon, methane, nitrous oxide, or any other GHG unless compliant with Office of Management and Budget guidance.
A copy of the bill’s current text can be found here.