Congress moves to ban climate math from pollution rules
H.R. 3147 — Transparency and Honesty in Energy Regulations Act · Filed by Richard Hudson (R-NC) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced May 1, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill prohibits federal agencies from using the 'social cost of carbon' and related greenhouse-gas damage estimates in any regulatory analysis, cost-benefit study, or policy decision. It effectively bars the EPA, Department of Energy, and other agencies from factoring climate damages into rules on power plants, emissions, or pollution—even though these estimates are peer-reviewed government science used to weigh harms against compliance costs.
Why we flagged it
The bill's title invokes 'transparency and honesty,' but its actual mechanism is to suppress a specific category of scientific evidence (climate damages) from regulatory deliberation. It is a deregulatory measure dressed in procedural language, not a transparency reform.
What the text implies
- Agencies will be unable to justify stricter pollution rules even when climate damages far exceed compliance costs, shifting the burden of proof onto environmental advocates rather than polluters.
- The bill does not ban the science itself—only its use in federal decisions—creating a two-tier system where private litigation and state regulators may still cite climate damages, but federal agencies cannot, fragmenting policy coherence.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
fossil fuel power generators; coal and natural gas utilities; oil and gas producers