On June 7, 2023 Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) and Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) introduced bill S. 1863 “To require the Secretary of Energy to conduct a study and submit a report on the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of certain products produced in the United States and in certain foreign countries, and for other purposes.” Its short name is the “PROVE IT Act of 2023” from “Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency.”

MEET THE PRESS — Pictured: Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) appears on “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C. Sunday, July 30, 2023. — (Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images) | WILLIAM B. PLOWMAN/NBC VIA GETTY IMAGES

“Product emissions intensity” is defined as “the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere as a result of the extraction, production, processing, manufacture, and assembly, as applicable, of 1 unit of a covered product, including the greenhouse gas emissions of an upstream input that is incorporated into a downstream product.” In the parlance of carbon emissions reporting, upstream is part of Scope 3, discussed below.

The covered products are carbon intensive ones such as aluminum, cement, crude oil, fertilizer, iron and steel, natural gas, petrochemicals, plastics, pulp and paper, solar cells and panels, uranium, and wind turbines.

The unit of analysis is the country since “’average product emissions intensity’ means the national average of the product emissions intensity of a category of covered products.” The covered countries are members of the Group of Seven (Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States), signatories to free trade agreements with the U.S., a “foreign country of concern,” and countries that have “more than a de minimis share of the global market” of either one or more categories of covered products and/or upstream inputs for one or more covered products.”

This is a bipartisan bill with Republican co-sponsors John Boozman (R-AR), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK); Democratic co-sponsors Richard Durbin (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-IL), John Hickenhooper (D-CO), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI); and Independent Angus King (ME). In today’s hyper-polarized political environment, any bill with bipartisan support deserves attention.

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