I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5668 
To prohibit the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency from taking the social cost of carbon or the 
social cost of methane into account when taking any action, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 7, 2016 
Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia (for himself, Mr. WOMACK, Mr. CULBERSON, 
Mr. LAHOOD, and Mr. MULLIN) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To prohibit the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator 
of the Environmental Protection Agency from taking the 
social cost of carbon or the social cost of methane into 
account when taking any action, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Transparency and 
Honesty in Energy Regulations Act of 2016’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following— 
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(1) As a tool to justify Federal actions by the 
Department of Energy and the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency (hereinafter in this section referred 
to as the ‘‘EPA’’) addressing greenhouse gas emis-
sions, including those regulating or prohibiting the 
exploration, mining, production, and use of coal as 
well as other fossil fuels as energy sources, the So-
cial Cost of Carbon (hereinafter in this section re-
ferred to as the ‘‘SCC’’) and the Social Cost of 
Methane (hereinafter in this section referred to as 
the ‘‘SCM’’) in theory represent the hypothetical 
cost of an incremental ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) 
or methane emissions in a given year. 
(2) Office of Management and Budget (herein-
after in this section referred to as the ‘‘OMB’’) Cir-
cular A–4 guides Federal agencies on the develop-
ment of regulatory impact analysis required under 
Executive Order 12866 as well as other authorities, 
instructing agencies to include discount rates of 3 
and 7 percent while also evaluating the cost and 
benefits that accrue to citizens and residents of the 
United States. 
(3) First developed in 2009 by an interagency 
working group, including the Department of Energy 
and the EPA, the SCC estimates fail to comply with 
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OMB Circular A–4 prescribed discount rates of 3 
and 7 percent. 
(4) While OMB Circular A–4 specifies that an 
evaluation of the global effects, when undertaken, is 
to be reported separately from domestic costs and 
benefits, the SCC instead calculated the global bene-
fits in lieu of and not in addition to the domestic ef-
fects. 
(5) The use of the SCC estimates in Depart-
ment of Energy and EPA rulemakings prior to any 
opportunity for public notice and comment violated 
not only scientific peer-review requirements but also 
the President’s commitment to transparent and open 
government as outlined in his January 21, 2009, 
memorandum to the heads of executive departments 
and agencies. 
(6) In July 2015, as part of a revision of the 
SCC in response to over 150 substantive comments 
and in acknowledgment of the faulty process by 
which the SCC estimates were developed, the OMB 
requested the National Academies of Science, Engi-
neering and Medicine (hereinafter in this section re-
ferred to as the ‘‘NAS’’) review and make rec-
ommendations for the improvement of the SCC esti-
mates. 
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