Lawmakers consider new plastic tax to aid oceans

June 23, 2021

The House Natural Resources Committee yesterday moved toward passing a sweeping ocean bill that would impose a new 5-cent excise tax on virgin plastic used to manufacture single-use products.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the panel's chairman, said his bill, H.R. 3764, the "Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act of 2021," would help raise money for ocean conservation projects.

Under Grijalva's bill, tax revenues would go to a new Virgin Plastic Trust Fund, with half of it reserved for the U.S. general fund.

"Taxing plastic will also discourage this wasteful material that chokes our marine life, contributes to climate change and creates environmental injustices," Grijalva told his colleagues during a virtual hearing.

The tax, which would exempt medical and personal hygiene products, is just one small part of the wide-ranging bill, which would also promote more offshore wind energy and research.

The bill would also authorize NOAA to receive $50 million per year for a grants program for a living shoreline project and establish new monitoring and verification requirements for greenhouse gas emissions by seafaring vessels.

While no votes were taken, the bill had plenty of provisions that appealed to committee members.

Among them: NOAA would be directed to come up with new climate solutions to reduce carbon emissions and global warming, to increase the resiliency of coastal communities, and to improve the restoration of ocean and coastal habitats and biodiversity.

Other language in the bill would require NOAA to develop and coordinate data, products and services to address coastal flooding and sea-level rise, and a study on black carbon emissions would quantify them and examine their impacts on Indigenous communities and Arctic wildlife.

Mixed reviews from GOP

Chris Lee, a Democratic state senator from Hawaii, urged the panel to pass the bill to aid states that are trying to fight climate change on their own, calling it an issue that cannot be resolved "by any one state" alone.

"States are taking action, but it's just not enough," he said.

But the legislation drew mixed reviews. While many Democrats were quick to endorse it, some Republicans were skeptical.

"It also seems that the more we talk about giving government more and more power and more and more money to battle evil climate change that we've seen for millions of years, it's a matter of giving up more and more private rights and personal rights that the Constitution ensured to us," said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) said he appreciated the intent behind the bill but added: "I have concerns that it goes too far to accomplish its goals and expands the size and scope of the federal government."

Even though much of the new work would go to NOAA, the agency has yet to take a position on the bill.

But Nicole LeBoeuf, the acting assistant administrator for NOAA's National Ocean Services and Coastal Zone Management, told the panel that "it's very clear that there are shared interests between NOAA's mission and the interests of this committee."

When Grijalva first introduced the bill earlier this month, he said federal policy "had neglected our oceans for far too long, especially with whole ecosystems already disappearing to climate change" (E&E News PM, June 8).

The bill also includes language calling for a study on public access to U.S. coasts and the Great Lakes.

Grijalva said the study was needed because "unfortunately there are many barriers and obstacles for underserved communities to accessing our coasts, and climate change is only making it more difficult."

The bill has attracted 28 co-sponsors, all Democrats.

Boatload of ocean bills

The agenda included another dozen bills that Grijalva said he had included in his "Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act" but that could also move through Congress as stand-alone measures.

They are:

  • H.R. 660, sponsored by Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), to require the Commerce Department to establish a grant program to benefit coastal habitats and resiliency projects.
  • H.R. 1415, sponsored by Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), to amend the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 to authorize grants to Indian tribes for coastal zone projects.
  • H.R. 1689, sponsored by Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón (R-Puerto Rico), to amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to apply to U.S. territories, establish offshore wind lease sale requirements and provide dedicated funding for coral reef conservation.
  • H.R. 2750, sponsored by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), to establish an interagency working group on coastal blue carbon.
  • H.R. 3160, sponsored by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), to amend the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 to establish a working waterfront task force and a working waterfront grant program.
  • H.R. 3228, sponsored by Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), to direct the secretary of Commerce to improve science, data and services for decisionmaking in response to coastal flood risk.
  • H.R. 3692, sponsored by Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), to amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to direct the secretary of Commerce to establish a climate impact management plan to protect marine mammals.
  • H.R. 3748, sponsored by Bonamici, to improve data collection and monitoring of the Great Lakes, oceans, bays, estuaries and coasts.
  • H.R. 3817, sponsored by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), to allow coastal states to participate in regional ocean partnerships with other states.
  • H.R. 3864, sponsored by Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.), to express the sense of Congress that NOAA's Chesapeake Bay Office should be the primary representative of NOAA in the Chesapeake Bay and require the Commerce Department to provide grants supporting research on the conservation, restoration, or management of oysters in estuarine ecosystems.
  • H.R. 3892, sponsored by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), to make changes to the National Oceans and Coastal Security Act by supporting efforts to prepare and respond to a variety of coastal threats, including extreme weather events, climate hazards and changing ocean conditions.
  • H.R. 3906, sponsored by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), to establish a blue carbon program to conserve and restore marine and coastal blue carbon ecosystems.

By:  Rob Hotakainen
Source: E&E News