House Science Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) last week renewed his request to White House Budget Chief Shalanda Young to provide his panel with the Biden administration’s reasoning for proposing a rule that would require certain federal contractors to use carbon emissions targets set by a foreign-based environmental group.
The proposed rule was published in November 2022 by the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and NASA and would apply to “major” contractors that receive more than $50 million in federal obligations in the prior fiscal year and “significant” suppliers that received between $7.5 million and $50 million in government business.
The Aug. 16 letter from Lucas to Young somewhat mirrors a letter Republicans on the committee sent in March to OMB’s Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council. Lucas said OMB replied in April that it would include the committee’s letter as part of the public comment on the proposed rule because, in his words, “doing otherwise would interfere with the notice and comment process.”
Lucas says that the administration is preventing federal departments and agencies from responding to routine congressional requests for information.
Lucas and his Republican colleagues are questioning the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi), which he says has filed its incorporation in the United Kingdom but that the climate group is not registered in the U.S.
SBTi’s website does not say where the organization is based and does not provide an address or phone number. The group’s goal is to drive “ambitious climate action in the private sector” by setting greenhouse gas (GHG) targets.
Lucas said the White House “does not have constitutional authority to delegate administrative and legislative authority to a foreign entity, or any entity for that matter, without Congressional approval.” He also said a 2021 executive order from President Biden on climate risks and the need for federal contractors to disclose their GHG emissions “does not require these standard setting and validation services, nor does it have the authority to issue this requirement.”
The SBTi on its website says it is a partnership of the London-based CDP, the Washington, D.C.-based World Resources Institute, Geneva-based World Wide Fund for Nature, and the United Nations Global Compact.
The House Armed Services Committee in its version of the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization bill voted against the administration’s rule as it related to DoD contractors. The HASC voted for its carbon emissions provision along party lines with all Democrats opposed. The Senate Armed Services Committee would prohibit DoD from requiring contractors to report on their GHG emissions for two years and not require nontraditional defense contractors to provide these reports at all.