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.
- By requiring a 120-day report on past use of social-cost estimates, the bill creates a chilling effect on future agency reliance on peer-reviewed climate science, even in contexts where it is legally permissible.
- The definition section's exhaustive list of specific EPA and interagency documents suggests the bill is designed to invalidate or constrain particular recent rulemakings (e.g., 2024 power-plant emissions rules) without naming them directly.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens bear the health and environmental costs of pollution (asthma, flooding, crop loss) that the bill prevents agencies from counting. By removing climate damages from regulatory math, the bill makes it easier for polluters to avoid costly controls, shifting uncompensated harm onto the public while reducing transparency in how rules are justified.
Who stands to gain
- fossil fuel power generators
- coal and natural gas utilities
- oil and gas producers
- heavy industrial polluters
Named in the bill
EPA, Department of Energy, Executive Order 12866, Executive Order 13563, Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Carbon, fossil fuel-fired electric generating units, coal utilities, natural gas utilities
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Republicans.
- May 1, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 1, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on the…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jun 10, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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