House Republicans are introducing legislation that would require President Biden to report to Congress before he submits a target to reduce emissions under the Paris climate agreement that he just rejoined.
Republican Reps. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina and Garret Graves of Louisiana are planning Thursday to unveil a bill that would enable Congress to reject whatever emissions target Biden sets through a “joint resolution of disapproval,” according to text of the legislation obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, is introducing his own legislation Thursday that would also require Biden to submit his emissions cutting target to Congress, his office confirmed.
Several senators led by Steve Daines of Montana, meanwhile, announced they plan to introduce a resolution calling on Biden to submit the Paris Agreement to the Senate for ratification.
The bills stand little chance of advancing through the Democratic Congress, but they are the latest example of congressional Republicans opposing the Paris Agreement, even as the party’s leadership has tried to shift its positioning on the need to address climate change.
Republicans, for the most part, are in the same place as they were four years ago when President Donald Trump rejected the agreement, decrying the U.S. involvement as undermining American sovereignty and giving a free pass for China to pollute.
Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a Trump ally who urged him to stay in the agreement, is again a rare exception, arguing Wednesday that “abandoning our leadership on the world stage only benefits our competitors.”
This approach diverges from the posture of businesses, including oil companies, that are usually aligned with Republicans.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute issued statements supporting Biden’s decision to reenter the Paris Agreement, a shift of position for both as they seek to find areas of compromise with Biden’s aggressive climate agenda.
Biden, as one of his first moves in office Wednesday, announced the United States intends to reenter the Paris Agreement, the global pact to combat climate change under which all of the nations of the world voluntarily set their own nonbinding targets for reducing carbon emissions.
His administration submitted a letter of intent to the United Nations on Wednesday for the U.S. to reenter the Paris Agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration when Biden was vice president in 2015.
Under the terms of the pact, Biden needs to wait another 30 days for the U.S. to be back in.
President Barack Obama had pledged the U.S. would reduce emissions 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. Biden is expected to submit a new emissions reduction target, known as a Nationally Determined Contribution, to the U.N. that will be even more aggressive and go out to the year 2030.
The House Republican bills would require Biden to report his new target to Congress before he submits it to the U.N.
McCaul’s legislation seeks for Biden to include a cost-benefit analysis as well as an economic justification for the target.
The bill from Foxx and Graves would force Biden to provide a plan for the U.S. to meet its emissions target, including the types of new regulations or financial incentives it would take to achieve it. Biden would also have to say how reaching the target would contribute to reducing emissions globally and how he would address potential “increased” energy costs and “job displacement.”
