Only limited information is available on the greenhouse gas emissions of the government, and a measure pending before the House (HR-2635) aimed at reducing those emissions would have an effect on numerous government operations, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis.
The bill would require agencies to inventory and reduce all greenhouse gas emissions, including direct emissions such as energy usage in buildings and vehicles as well as indirect emissions such as emissions from the production of energy, travel costs, and contractor-related activities. It would require federal agencies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by freezing emissions in 2010 and then working to steadily reduce net emissions by at least 2 percent a year to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Under the bill, the federal government could lower its energy use or purchase qualified greenhouse gas offsets or renewable energy certificates or a combination of those approaches to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
CBO said the "government’s emissions of greenhouse gases—primarily carbon dioxide, but also methane, nitrous oxide, and other chemicals—are the result of a variety of processes, including the combustion of fossil fuels, industrial activities, and natural processes. Most of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States result from the combustion of fossil fuels. There is currently no requirement for the federal government to specifically track or reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and no reliable comprehensive data base of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions that result from the government’s operations."
CBO said the government is the largest user of energy in the country, consuming about 2 percent of the total consumed. It projected that 20 percent of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions required of the federal government under the bill before 2017 would stem from reducing energy use and that most emissions reduction under the bill in the initial years—80 percent—would be achieved by purchasing greenhouse gas offsets.
The measure would also require federal agencies to purchase light-duty and medium-duty passenger vehicles that are low greenhouse gas-emitting vehicles.
