[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5342 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5342

To prohibit the use of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to 
document, predict, or mitigate the climate effects of specific Federal 
                                actions.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 19, 2010

 Mr. Bishop of Utah (for himself, Mrs. McMorris Rodgers, Mrs. Lummis, 
   Mr. Herger, Mr. Young of Alaska, and Mr. Chaffetz) introduced the 
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit the use of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to 
document, predict, or mitigate the climate effects of specific Federal 
                                actions.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the purpose of the National Environmental Policy Act of 
        1969 is to ensure that a Federal agency will carefully consider 
        detailed information concerning significant environmental 
        impacts and make the relevant information available to the 
        public;
            (2) isolating the specific causes of various climatic 
        changes is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to 
        achieve;
            (3) the Council on Environmental Quality has stated that--
                    (A) ``it is not useful to attempt to link specific 
                climatological changes, or the environmental impacts 
                thereof, to particular projects or emissions, as such 
                direct linkage is difficult to isolate and to 
                understand''; and
                    (B) there are ``scientific limits to accurately 
                predicting climate change effects, especially of a 
                short-term nature.''; and
            (4) the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 should 
        not be used to document, predict, or mitigate the climate 
        effects of specific Federal actions.

SEC. 2. USE OF NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT OF 1969 FOR CLIMATE 
              CHANGE EFFECTS.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall not require consideration of--
            (1) the climate change effects or greenhouse gas emissions 
        of a proposed action and alternative actions; or
            (2) the relationship of climate change effects or 
        greenhouse gas emissions to a proposed action or alternatives, 
        including the relationship to proposal design, environmental 
        impacts, mitigation, and adaptation measures.
    (b)  Other Authorities.--The provisions of a draft, proposed, or 
final results of any analysis, study, mitigation measure, adaptation 
measure, environmental impact statement or similar analysis, design 
proposal, action, or alternative developed pursuant to the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) (including 
regulations) relating to climate change effects or greenhouse gas 
emissions shall not be the basis, in whole or in part, for any 
enforceable measure or action under any other provision of law.
    (c) Savings Clause.--Nothing in this section preempts or interferes 
with--
            (1) any authority to consider the climate change effects or 
        greenhouse gas emissions effects of proposed legislation or 
        regulations specifically addressing greenhouse gas emissions; 
        or
            (2) any requirement to consider the potential climate 
        change effects or greenhouse gas emission effects of proposals 
        for agency action during planning or design processes under 
        provisions of law other than the National Environmental Policy 
        Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).
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