Energy progress, Chevron doctrine’s demise, and the 25th amendment

In remembrance: Our condolences go out to the families of former Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe and Gail Wilensky, former senior White House health care adviser and co-chair of BPC’s Future of Health Advisory Board, both of whom passed away this week.

Energy Progress

“The world wants to buy clean. Let’s show that we are clean,” Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) told the crowd at our Climate and Trade Summit this week after he and Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) introduced the PROVE IT Act in the House on July 9.

Five additional members of Congress, President Trump’s former United States Trade Representative staff, current Biden Administration officials, the former head of the National Economic Council, and energy industry leaders were also on hand at the summit for discussions on merging climate and trade policy and potential policy designs. We’ve previously said that an Emission Performance Border Carbon Adjustment offers the best path to link climate and trade policy. To coincide with the summit, we issued a paper on border carbon adjustment design questions, options to address them, and possible policy alternatives, and we announced a new Climate and Trade Advisory Council.

Seventeen bipartisan House members co-sponsored the PROVE IT Act, which we helped craft, and it is a companion to the Senate bill (S.1863), led by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Chris Coons (D-DE). “The beauty of the PROVE IT Act is that for free traders and or fair traders, PROVE IT has a real value,” Sen. Cramer said at the summit. “If the climate is your number one concern, it has real value. And the fact that it has value to people who care about emissions, shouldn’t prevent people who care about free trade from being on board.” By providing reliable and transparent data on product-level emissions, the bill would strengthen the United States’ position in trade negotiations, ensuring fair competition, expanding domestic manufacturing, and holding China accountable for its emissions. “I think this is something that has legs, no matter what the outcome is in November,” Sen. Coons said.

We’re also delighted that President Biden signed the ADVANCE ACT, which we helped ensure that Congress passed. The bill helps further secure the future of nuclear energy and?lays the groundwork for the fast deployment of a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors.

Chevron's doctrine demise

With the Supreme Court overturning the “Chevron deference doctrine” – which since 1984 has instructed courts to give federal agencies wide leeway to implement ambiguous or vague laws – we?think?Congress should revisit how it writes laws to better align its policy goals with the practical matter of implementing them. If Congress does not want to cede greater policymaking authority to the courts, it will need to play a much larger role in the details of policymaking. Agencies will need far more direction from Congress when they write regulations to reflect lawmakers’ intent in enacting laws, and Congress will need to better understand federal implementation. For Congress, we suggest two paths forward: (1) re-examine how it exercises oversight and review of the administrative state, and (2) increase its expertise, staff capacity, tools, and information.

25th amendment considerations

With so much attention on the ages of the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, we’ve posted a new piece?on the 25th?amendment explaining the procedures for determining who maintains the duties of the presidency in cases of temporary or permanent presidential incapacity. Since its ratification in 1967, the amendment has been invoked twice to fill a vice-presidential vacancy and numerous times to ensure the smooth operation of the executive branch when the president has been temporarily incapacitated.

Have a nice weekend.