[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2578 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2578
To seek the renegotiation of the Paris Agreement on climate change or
the negotiation of a new agreement, including the requirement for the
Senate to provide its advice and consent to ratification of any such
agreement, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 15, 2021
Mr. Graves of Louisiana (for himself, Mrs. Rodgers of Washington, Mr.
McCaul, Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Scalise, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Thompson of
Pennsylvania, Mr. Westerman, Ms. Foxx, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Carter of
Georgia, Mr. Gonzalez of Ohio, Mrs. Miller of West Virginia, and Mr.
Armstrong) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on
Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To seek the renegotiation of the Paris Agreement on climate change or
the negotiation of a new agreement, including the requirement for the
Senate to provide its advice and consent to ratification of any such
agreement, 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 cited as the ``Paris Transparency and Accountability
Act''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT REENTER THE
PARIS AGREEMENT ABSENT FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS AND ADVICE
AND CONSENT TO RATIFICATION OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) On May 9, 1992, the United States Senate provided its
advice and consent to ratification regarding the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (Framework Convention),
which entered into force on March 21, 1994.
(2) The Framework Convention was ratified under the express
limitation that a decision by the Conference of the Parties to
adopt targets and timetables would have to be submitted to the
Senate for its advice and consent.
(3) The Kyoto Protocol, completed at the 3d Conference of
the Parties (COP) to the Framework Convention in December 1997
in Kyoto, Japan, contains emissions targets and timetables, and
was signed by the Clinton Administration on behalf of the
United States but never submitted to the Senate for its advice
and consent to ratification.
(4) The United Nations Climate Change website states: ``The
Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on
climate change.''. And yet this United Nations designated
``legally binding international treaty'' has never been
submitted to the United States Senate for advice and consent as
required of treaties under article II, section 2 of the
Constitution.
(5) The Paris Agreement and every article and clause
thereof was accepted by President Barack Obama on behalf of the
United States solely through executive action, rather than
submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent to
ratification.
(6) Implementation of the Paris Agreement would serve as
justification for pursuing unilateral and punitive policies
harmful to United States economic competitiveness, including
significant job loss, increased energy and consumer costs,
risks to grid reliability, or any combination thereof.
(7) When originally negotiating the Paris Agreement,
incoming Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry
stated, if . . . ``all the industrial nations went down to zero
emissions, it wouldn't be enough, not when more than 65 percent
of the world's carbon pollution comes from the developing
world''.
(8) The Paris Agreement allows the People's Republic of
China, the world's second largest economy and largest emitter
of greenhouse gasses, to continue as a developing country, and
therefore justify energy and industrial policies that undermine
the economic and security interests of the United States and
its allies, and significantly increase emissions in the
foreseeable future.
(9) The People's Republic of China is on track to increase
its emissions by roughly 50 percent by 2030, consistent with
the 2014 agreement with the Obama Administration and its pledge
under the Paris Agreement.
(10) Since 2005 the People's Republic of China increased
emissions by four tons for every ton of emissions reduced by
the United States during the same period.
(11) To protect the interests of the United States and its
citizens, prior to its submission to the United States Senate
for its advice and consent to ratification, the Paris Agreement
should be renegotiated or new agreement negotiated to ensure
the People's Republic of China reduces greenhouse gas emissions
at a pace and scale equivalent to that of the United States.
(12) Through innovation and free market forces, the United
States has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions more than any
other country in the world, including the next 12 emissions-
reducing countries combined over the past 15 years.
(13) Between 1994 and 2018, global greenhouse gas emissions
grew significantly despite nearly a quarter century of
international climate agreements and in spite of the United
States, the European Union and other Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) and G7 nations reducing
their emissions during the same time period.
(14) The emissions reduction goals of the Paris Agreement
cannot be met without the development and global deployment of
affordable energy technologies, including storage, nuclear, and
clean fossil technologies, as well as commercial-scale carbon,
capture, utilization, and storage technologies.
(15) American economic growth and prosperity is essential
to the development and deployment of these technologies to
address global energy security and reduction of global
emissions. Punitive policies such as taxes, mandates and
regulations that increase the cost of energy and American
manufacturing will divert resources from the innovation of
affordable technologies necessary to reduce global emissions.
(16) Global competitors to exported American liquified
natural gas, such as Russian produced natural gas, have
lifecycle emissions up to 50 percent higher than American
exported liquified natural gas, and domestic policies such as
taxes, mandates, regulations or banning of the domestically
produced energy resource will result in higher global emissions
and run counter to the goals of international efforts to reduce
emissions all while hurting America's competitiveness,
security, and economic interests.
(17) The United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement,
pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, which President Donald
J. Trump first announced on June 1, 2017, and took effect on
November 4, 2020.
(18) On January 20, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.,
signed an Executive order providing for the United States to
reenter the Paris Agreement.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the United
States should not reenter the Paris Agreement and Congress should
refuse to consider any budget resolutions and appropriations language
that include funding for the Green Climate Fund or any affiliated body
or financing mechanism--
(1) until the Paris Agreement is renegotiated, or a new
agreement is reached, in a manner that would result in all
major emitters, including the People's Republic of China,
reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to levels comparable to
the United States; and
(2) unless such agreement--
(A) is submitted to the United States Senate for
its advice and consent to ratification; and
(B) subsequently approved by the United States
Senate exercising its responsibilities under Article II
of the Constitution of the United States.
SEC. 3. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION RELATING TO PARIS AGREEMENT.
(a) Relating to Paris Agreement.--Nothing in the Paris Agreement
may be used to establish or demonstrate the existence of a violation of
United States law or an offense against the law of nations in United
States courts, including--
(1) to establish standing, a cause of action, or a source
of damages as a matter of law; or
(2) to demonstrate whether an action by a Federal agency is
arbitrary or capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise
not in accordance with law.
(b) Relating to This Act.--Nothing in subsection (a) may be
construed to modify or limit any obligation of the United States
pursuant to an international treaty that was ratified by the President
with the advice and consent of the Senate, including the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
SEC. 4. ACTIONS TO ESTABLISH OR REVISE UNITED STATES NATIONALLY
DETERMINED CONTRIBUTION UNDER THE PARIS AGREEMENT.
(a) In General.--Any action to establish or revise the United
States nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement
shall have force and effect only if--
(1) before the President submits the nationally determined
contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change Secretariat, the President submits to Congress a
report that--
(A) describes the proposed action;
(B) includes a plan for the United States to meet
its nationally determined contribution under the Paris
Agreement that includes--
(i) a complete description of measures
under the authority of the Federal Government
necessary to achieve the United States
nationally determined contribution, including
new or revised regulations, new or revised
authorities that require congressional actions,
and new or revised financial incentives;
(ii) a description of how the United States
will use the Paris Agreement's transparency
provisions to confirm that other parties to the
Agreement, including all major emitters, are
fulfilling their announced contributions to the
Agreement;
(iii) a description of how the United
States will utilize numerous energy sources,
including nuclear, fossil fuel, and renewable
technologies, to meet the nationally determined
contribution;
(iv) a description of any impact on grid
resilience and reliability that would result
from policies necessary to meet the nationally
determined contribution;
(v) a description of how the nationally
determined contribution will promote the
availability of diversified energy supplies and
a well-functioning global market for energy
resources, technologies, and expertise for the
benefit of the United States and United States
allies and trading partners;
(vi) a description of how the nationally
determined contribution will support United
States international efforts to alleviate
energy poverty;
(vii) an analysis of the impact of
increased costs of energy or vital household
expenditures on low- or middle-income families,
and any disproportionate or increased burden on
such families, as a result of the nationally
determined contribution;
(viii) a description of how the nationally
determined contribution will support United
States efforts to counter malign Chinese,
Russian, and other adversarial influence and
domination over energy supply chains; and
(ix) a description of how the nationally
determined contribution will impact United
States national security interests;
(C) includes, for any measure described in
subparagraph (B)(i) that could result in increased
costs of energy produced or consumed in the United
States or increased costs to manufacture or produce
goods or resources in the United States, a description
of specific policy measures to prevent--
(i) job displacement that would result as a
result of any such measure;
(ii) reduced global competitiveness of
goods and resources manufactured or produced in
the United States as a result of any such
measure; and
(iii) leaked emissions, including new or
increased lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions
that will occur outside of the United States,
as a result of any such measure;
(D) includes a specific timeline for implementing
the specific policy measures described in subparagraph
(C) in a manner that such measures are fully
implemented and in effect prior to, or simultaneously
with, the implementation and effect of the measures
described in subparagraph (B)(i) in order to
effectively counteract any negative impacts on domestic
jobs and manufacturing;
(E) includes an analysis of the nationally
determined contributions submitted with the respect to
the Paris Agreement by the Government of the People's
Republic of China and the Government of the Russian
Federation, the anticipated effects on their respective
domestic greenhouse gas emissions, and the anticipated
effects on their respective global competitiveness;
(F) describes how the United States nationally
determined contribution will impact the level of total
global emissions, based on the most recent available
global emissions data, and how the United States
nationally determined contribution in the aggregate
with the nationally determined contributions of other
countries submitted under the Paris Agreement will
result in a reduction of global emissions below 2005
levels by 2036 or by the date that is 15 years after
the submission of the United States nationally
determined contribution, whichever occurs later; and
(G) contains a determination of the President that
the proposed action is in the national interest of the
United States; and
(2) during the 60-day period beginning on the date on which
the report is submitted under paragraph (1), a joint resolution
of disapproval described in subsection (b) with respect to the
proposed action is not enacted into law.
(b) Joint Resolution of Disapproval.--
(1) In general.--In this subsection, the term ``joint
resolution of disapproval'' means only a joint resolution of
either House of Congress--
(A) the title of which is as follows: ``A joint
resolution disapproving the action of the President to
establish or revise the United States' nationally
determined contribution under the Paris Agreement.'';
and
(B) the sole matter after the resolving clause of
which is as follows: ``Congress disapproves of the
action of the President to establish or revise the
United States' nationally determined contribution under
the Paris Agreement as proposed by the President in the
report submitted to Congress under section 3(a)(1) of
the Protecting American Resources, Innovation, and
Sovereignty Act on __ relating to __.'', with the first
blank space being filled with the appropriate date and
the second blank space being filled with a short
description of the proposed action.
(2) Congressional procedures.--A joint resolution of
disapproval shall be considered in the House of Representatives
and the Senate in accordance with paragraphs (4) through (6) of
section 135(e) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C.
2160e(e)).
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Major emitter.--The term ``major emitter'' means any
country, or defined group of countries that share a common
nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement,
that accounts for at least one percent of global greenhouse gas
emissions based on most recent data as determined by the
Department of State.
(2) Paris agreement.--The term ``Paris Agreement'' means
the decision by the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change's 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, France,
adopted December 12, 2015.
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