U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Advances PROVE IT Act of 2023

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works voted on Thursday, January 18th, to advance the Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency (PROVE IT) Act of 2023 to the Senate floor with a 14 to 5 bipartisan vote. 

Committee Chairman Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE) opened the business meeting of the EPW Committee by explaining and advocating for the passage of the Act. He explained that the PROVE IT Act requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct a study comparing the greenhouse gas emissions of manufacturing several key commodities here with the same commodities in other countries. These include iron, steel, aluminum, various fossil fuels, plastics, and more. Senator Carper stated the goal of the Act is transparency, as well as to “boost the competitiveness of American manufacturing and help incentivize cleaner production in the United States and overseas — a win-win for our climate and our economy.”

Ranking Member Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) began debate on the bill claiming that the DOE’s data would be redundant, and that the EPA already has similar data. She also expressed concerns about vague language concerning the DOE’s authority to implement the bill and Democrats potentially using the study’s results to justify a carbon tax. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) disagreed with these claims and argued that the bill contains no language that grants authority to implement such a tax. Senator Cramer also claimed that the bill would be a tool to defend the U.S. against possible European carbon tariffs, by allowing the government to present its own data defending the high environmental standards of American manufacturing.

Senator Capito introduced the first two amendments discussed in the meeting. The first would shift responsibility for the study to the EPA to consolidate relevant data. It would also create a 60-vote threshold rather than 50 votes if any budget reconciliation package was brought forward that attempted to pass a carbon tax using the act as a justification. The amendment failed in a 13 to 6 vote, and a follow-up amendment containing only the reconciliation measure failed in a 10 to 9 vote. Senator Carper claimed the reconciliation measure was a “poison pill”, although Senator Cramer disagreed due to the bill already limiting regulatory actions that agencies can take using the data.

Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) also introduced an amendment by claiming that Congress should be “more prescriptive with the executive branch”. It stated that when studying biofuels under PROVE It, the DOE would be required to apply the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) Model, a framework from within the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory focused on transport fuels. Senator Carper argued that the DOE already uses that model at their discretion and that limiting them to one approach could damage the bill’s support and credibility. The amendment failed by a 10 to 9 vote.

NEMWI will continue to track this bill as it moves to the Senate floor. A recording of the committee meeting can be found here.

Reported by NEMWI Intern Owen Macdonald, Gettysburg College

U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Holds Hearing on HABHRCA

The House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries held a hearing last Thursday, January 18, on the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA) reauthorization introduced in November by Rep. Susan Bonamici (D-OR) and Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chair Rep. David Joyce (R-OH).

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) set the scope of the problem with HABs in his statement, asserting “Harmful algal blooms are a significant threat to marine and aquatic ecosystems in all 50 states and our territories. They grow quickly under particular conditions and produce toxins that poison humans and wildlife, and when these algal blooms die off, their decomposition removes oxygen from the water column, suffocating the surrounding environment. So, it’s a huge problem, and it’s good that we are taking action.”

“NOAA has found that HABs can have an average annual impact of between 10 and 100 million [dollars], and the cost to respond to a single harmful bloom event can be tens of millions of dollars,” Subcommittee chair Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-OR) said in his opening statement. “By reauthorizing this legislation consistent with the GAO’s recommendations... we can respond to threats more effectively, protecting human health and the natural environment.”

The featured witness on harmful algal blooms was Dr. Don Anderson, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who gave testimony on the problems that HABs cause and the work being done to research and combat them. Dr. Anderson stressed that because HABs occur in every state, in both freshwater and saltwater environments, they require Congressional action. “My key takeaway today is that HABs and hypoxia, in their various forms, are national problems that require a comprehensive national research monitoring and mitigation strategy, as formulated in HABHRCA,” he said. 

Dr. Anderson also emphasized that HABs will only get worse as we see more and more effects from climate change, making it all the more urgent that we invest in research. “Climate change is one factor contributing to that expansion [of HABs], and is already affecting the distribution and abundance of multiple HABs species,” he said. “And a warming ocean is also increasing the number of hypoxic zones. So, there’s no doubt that the expansion of HAB and hypoxia problems is bringing many new challenges, yet most states lack the technical and financial resources to respond adequately. In this regard, the HABHRCA amendments provide mandates for sustaining our important funding programs, as well as sustaining operational forecasting capabilities.”

“It is vitally important to reauthorize HABHRCA,” Dr. Anderson concluded. “I‘ve worked in this field for 40 years as a scientist, and have seen these problems expand significantly. But I’ve also seen the clear acceleration of the benefits from sustained research support and the partnerships among diverse federal agencies,” he concluded.

Watch a recording of the hearing here.

Reported by Alex Eastman, NEMWI

Connect With the Northeast-Midwest Institute

on Social Media

The Northeast-Midwest Institute is on social media with new updates and information on its regional research and policy education program and with announcements for upcoming briefings and events. NEMWI is posting our research reports on current regional issues and ongoing policy education on the page to make keeping up with our policy work easier than ever. The Institute also is updating the page with announcements of upcoming policy briefings and webinars. NEMWI is excited for the opportunity to connect with as many people as possible 

Please check out our LinkedIn page here, our Twitter/X here, and our Facebook here. Be sure to like and follow us to keep up to date with NEMWI!