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TREATY DOCUMENT NO. 117-1
Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, as the current ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works--EPW--Committee, I submit these comments to provide the Senate with additional information on the existing domestic authority to phasedown the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons, HFCs. The EPW Committee has jurisdiction over air pollution, and in the 116th Congress, managed the development of the domestic authority to implement the Kigali Amendment, See 218 Cong. Rec. S7926, daily ed. Dec. 21. 2020, statement of then-EPW Chairman John Barrasso, then-EPW Ranking Member Tom Carper, and Sen. John Kennedy).
As the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations clearly states in Senate Executive Report 117-2, no further legislation is required to implement the Kigali Amendment and the Amendment is not self-executing. New authority is not granted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency--
EPA--through ratification.
In section 103 in division S of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, the American Innovation and Manufacturing--AIM--Act of 2020, P.L. 116-260, was enacted. That law established a new, national program administered by the EPA to phasedown the production and consumption of certain HFC substances due to their significant global warming potential. Specifically, the AIM Act requires the EPA to implement an 85 percent phasedown of the production and consumption of regulated HFC substances, requiring levels to reach approximately 15 percent of their 2011-2013 average annual levels by 2036.
The AIM Act provides all the necessary authorities to phasedown the production and consumption of HFCs in the United States in line with U.S. obligations under the Kigali Amendment and is already being implemented by the EPA. In October 2021, the EPA issued a final rule establishing the allowance allocation for 2022 and 2023, along with establishing a trading program for HFCs. 86 Fed. Reg. 55,116, Oct. 5, 2021. As stated in that final agency action, the Kigali Amendment and the AIM Act have ``a nearly identical list of HFCs to be phased down following the same schedule,'' Id. at 55,124. The EPA is currently developing regulations to update allowance allocations and the trading program for 2024 and later years.
I thank my colleagues at the U.S. Senate committee on Foreign Relations for providing a clear Congressional statement that no new legislation is required and that the Kigali Amendment is not self-
executing. As Congress has already enacted the required domestic implementing legislation, I support ratification.
Mr. MENENDEZ. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays are ordered.
Under the previous order, all postcloture time has expired.
Amendment Withdrawn
Under the previous order, amendment No. 5543 is withdrawn.
Vote on Amendment No. 5518
The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 5518.
The yeas and nays have been previously ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy) are necessarily absent.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo) and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch).
The result was announced--yeas 96, nays 0, as follows:
YEAS--96
Barrasso Bennet Blackburn Blumenthal Blunt Booker Boozman Braun Brown Burr Cantwell Capito Cardin Carper Casey Cassidy Collins Coons Cornyn Cortez Masto Cotton Cramer Cruz Daines Duckworth Durbin Ernst Feinstein Fischer Gillibrand Graham Grassley Hagerty Hassan Hawley Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Hoeven Hyde-Smith Inhofe Johnson Kaine Kelly Kennedy King Klobuchar Lankford Lee Lujan Lummis Manchin Markey Marshall
McConnell Menendez Merkley Moran Murkowski Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Paul Peters Portman Reed Romney Rosen Rounds Rubio Sanders Sasse Schatz Schumer Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Shaheen Shelby Sinema Smith Stabenow Sullivan Tester Thune Tillis Toomey Tuberville Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Whitehouse Wicker Wyden Young
NOT VOTING--4
Baldwin Crapo Leahy Risch
The amendment (No. 5518) was agreed to.
Vote on Resolution of Ratification
(No. 117-1)
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ossoff). The question occurs on agreeing to the resolution of ratification, as amended.
Mr. CARPER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy) are necessarily absent.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo) and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch).
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 69, nays 27, as follows:
YEAS--69
Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Booker Boozman Brown Burr Cantwell Capito Cardin Carper Casey Cassidy Collins Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Ernst Feinstein Gillibrand Graham Grassley Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Hyde-Smith Kaine Kelly Kennedy King Klobuchar Lujan Manchin Markey McConnell Menendez Merkley Moran Murkowski Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Portman Reed Romney Rosen Rubio Sanders Sasse Schatz Schumer Shaheen Sinema Smith Stabenow Tester Tillis Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Whitehouse Wicker Wyden Young
NAYS--27
Barrasso Blackburn Braun Cornyn Cotton Cramer Cruz Daines Fischer Hagerty Hawley Hoeven Inhofe Johnson Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall Paul Rounds Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Shelby Sullivan Thune Toomey Tuberville
NOT VOTING--4
Baldwin Crapo Leahy Risch
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). On this vote, the yeas are 69, the nays are 27.
Two-thirds of the Senators present, a quorum being present, having voted in the affirmative, the resolution of ratification is agreed to.
The resolution of ratification, as amended, is as follows:
Resolved, (two-thirds of the Senators present concurring therein).
SECTION 1. SENATE ADVICE AND CONSENT SUBJECT TO DECLARATIONS
AND A CONDITION
The Senate advises and consents to the ratification of the Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (the ``Montreal Protocol''), adopted at Kigali on October 15, 2016, by the Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (``The Kigali Amendment'') (Treaty Doc. 117-1), subject to the declarations of section 2 and the condition of section 3.
SECTION 2. DECLARATIONS
The advice and consent of the Senate under section 1 is subject to the following declarations:
(1) The Kigali amendment is not self-executing.
(2) The People's Republic of China is not a developing country, and the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations should not treat the People's Republic of China as such.
SEC. 3. CONDITION.
The advice and consent of the Senate under section 1 is subject to the following condition: Prior to the Thirty-Fifth Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, the Secretary of State shall transmit to the Secretariat of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer a proposal to amend Decision I/12E, ``Clarification of terms and definitions: developing countries,'' made at the First Meeting of the Parties, to remove the People's Republic of China.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 152
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