Foundation analysis · One World Development
Foundation draft · Not enacted law
A federal criminal, civil, administrative, disclosure, and restoration framework for major environmental harm, ecological destruction, and climate-related damage.
Environmental Accountability, Restoration, and Climate Harm Framework
Congressional submission packet · 14,134 words · 12 titles
Foundation model docket. Identifiers and proposed referrals are internal and are not official congressional or legislative assignments.
A guide to this proposal
The act turns planetary stewardship into enforceable duties: prevention, disclosure, executive accountability, environmental bonds, crimes against the Earth, civil remedies, restoration, financial accountability, and climate-harm attribution.
Analysis is commentary. Model text is a proposal. Fiscal scenarios, where provided, are illustrative.
Foundation Analysis
The draft combines preventive duties, criminal offenses, civil and apportioned liability, financial-actor duties, whistleblower, citizen, and qui tam enforcement, scientific methods, and a restoration fund.
In plain language: The act turns planetary stewardship into enforceable duties: prevention, disclosure, executive accountability, environmental bonds, crimes against the Earth, civil remedies, restoration, financial accountability, and climate-harm attribution.
Its central strength is the separation of culpability-based criminal offenses from strict and apportioned civil liability. Bright-line thresholds, non-retroactivity, defenses, notice, and review attempt to pair accountability with due process and predictable administration.
EPA, DOJ, SEC, financial regulators, customs agencies, and a Special Climate Prosecutor would need shared registries, attribution and valuation methods, bond administration, import screening, and a plan for long litigation and collection timelines.
Cumulative causation, financial control liability, imports and extraterritorial reach, ultra-hazardous thresholds, agency authority, and citizen enforcement are substantial litigation areas. Explicit rules and safe harbors help, but constitutional, trade, and administrative-law review remains essential.
The model projects ten-year outlays of $29.73 billion and receipts of $26.35 billion, with a near-break-even thirty-year base case, while private compliance costs are estimated at $6–15 billion in the first three years. Collections are uncertain and the figures are not an official score.
the draft is strongest as an integrated accountability architecture. It still needs evidentiary validation for event attribution, threshold calibration, coordination with existing environmental statutes, official scoring, and current constitutional and trade review.
Model legislation for policy development; not enacted law or legal advice. Analysis reflects the supplied July 2026 packet and should be refreshed against current law before legislative use.
Full Text
Read the legislation.
LEGISLATIVE SUBMISSION PACKET
Environmental Accountability, Restoration, and Climate Harm Framework
| Bill | RESPONSIBILITY Act of 2026 |
|---|---|
| Draft sponsor | [Insert sponsor] |
| Congress | [Insert Congress] |
| Committee referral | [Insert committee or referrals] |
| Filing date | [Insert filing date] |
| Submission contents | Proposed legislation; discussion draft note; section-by-section commentary; fiscal note; implementation plan and KPIs; public summary and FAQs; quality check; short bibliography. |
To establish a comprehensive Federal criminal, civil, administrative, disclosure, and restoration framework for major environmental harm, ecological destruction, and climate-related damage, and for other purposes.
Prepared as a congressional submission packet from the attached draft. Bracketed metadata fields remain for filing-specific completion.
A BILL
To establish a comprehensive Federal criminal, civil, administrative, disclosure, and restoration framework for major environmental harm, ecological destruction, and climate-related damage, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the “RESPONSIBILITY Act of 2026”.
In this Act, the term “RESPONSIBILITY” refers to the national policy of Remediation, Environmental Stewardship, Prevention, Oversight, National Sustainability, Integrity, Business and Individual accountability, Liability, Information disclosure, Transparency, and Youth-and-future-generation protection.
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Acronym.
Sec. 3. Table of contents.
Sec. 101. Congressional findings.
Sec. 102. Purposes.
Sec. 103. Constitutional and statutory bases.
Sec. 201. Definitions.
Sec. 202. Scope and applicability.
Sec. 203. Covered persons and threshold categories.
Sec. 204. Relationship to other laws and existing permits.
Sec. 205. Standards of proof, scienter, causation, and attribution.
Sec. 206. Defenses and equitable considerations.
Sec. 301. General duty of environmental due care and climate-risk prevention.
Sec. 302. Environmental accountability programs.
Sec. 303. Board oversight and executive certification.
Sec. 304. Monitoring, recordkeeping, and prompt reporting.
Sec. 305. Environmental bonds and impairment insurance.
Sec. 306. Incident prevention and emergency response plans.
Sec. 307. Supply-chain and contractor due diligence.
Sec. 308. Climate transition and restoration plans.
Sec. 309. Self-disclosure, cooperation, and mitigation.
Sec. 310. Small business assistance and phased compliance.
Sec. 401. Crimes against the Earth generally.
Sec. 402. Ecological destruction in the first degree.
Sec. 403. Ecological destruction in the second degree.
Sec. 404. Aggravated climate endangerment and concealment.
Sec. 405. Grossly negligent release or operational failure.
Sec. 406. Environmental fraud, monitoring tampering, and false certification.
Sec. 407. Obstruction, retaliation, and witness tampering.
Sec. 408. Aiding and abetting; conspiracy; financing prohibited conduct.
Sec. 409. Responsible corporate officer and control person liability.
Sec. 410. Organizational sentencing, probation, monitors, restitution, forfeiture, and debarment.
Sec. 411. Criminal limitations period and venue.
Sec. 501. Federal cause of action and persons liable.
Sec. 502. Public actions by the United States, States, Tribal governments, and local governments.
Sec. 503. Private actions.
Sec. 504. Cumulative climate-harm attribution and apportionment.
Sec. 505. Joint and several liability; contribution; successor liability.
Sec. 506. Recoverable damages.
Sec. 507. Equitable and restorative remedies.
Sec. 508. Strict civil liability for ultra-hazardous activities.
Sec. 509. Fiduciary, executive, and beneficial-owner civil liability.
Sec. 510. Civil limitations period.
Sec. 511. Settlements, offsets, credits, and allocation of recoveries.
Sec. 601. Federal duty of prudent environmental oversight.
Sec. 602. Parent entities, sponsors, and beneficial owners.
Sec. 603. Financial institutions, insurers, underwriters, asset managers, and family offices.
Sec. 604. Public issuer disclosure and internal control requirements.
Sec. 605. Clawbacks, indemnification limits, and compensation restrictions.
Sec. 606. Environmental reserves and contingent liability disclosures.
Sec. 701. Lead agencies and coordinated jurisdiction.
Sec. 702. Office of Environmental Accountability and Restoration.
Sec. 703. Office of the Special Climate Prosecutor.
Sec. 704. Interagency Task Force on Environmental Harm and Climate Accountability.
Sec. 705. Administrative orders, subpoenas, and civil investigative demands.
Sec. 706. Emergency orders and imminent-hazard authority.
Sec. 707. Penalty assessment factors and schedules.
Sec. 708. Annual national enforcement strategy and report.
Sec. 709. Community complaint portal and ombuds.
Sec. 801. Whistleblower protections.
Sec. 802. Awards.
Sec. 803. Confidential reporting and anti-retaliation procedures.
Sec. 804. Citizen suits.
Sec. 805. Environmental accountability qui tam actions.
Sec. 806. Attorney fees, interim relief, and anti-waiver rule.
Sec. 901. Interagency Scientific and Economic Assessment Board.
Sec. 902. Measurement and verification protocols.
Sec. 903. Social cost schedule and restoration valuation.
Sec. 904. Event attribution and admissibility.
Sec. 905. Environmental justice burden index.
Sec. 906. National Environmental Accountability Registry and data portal.
Sec. 907. Scientific integrity, peer review, and periodic revision.
Sec. 1001. State, Tribal, territorial, and local roles; non-preemption floor.
Sec. 1002. Tribal consultation, treaty rights, and Indigenous knowledge protections.
Sec. 1003. Extraterritorial application.
Sec. 1004. Imports, procurement, and Federal financial assistance restrictions.
Sec. 1005. International comity and foreign judgments.
Sec. 1101. Earth Restoration Trust Fund.
Sec. 1102. Deposits, allocations, and uses of amounts.
Sec. 1103. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 1104. Transition assistance and just-transition grants.
Sec. 1105. Inspector General and GAO review.
Sec. 1201. Rulemaking deadlines.
Sec. 1202. Judicial review.
Sec. 1203. Savings clause; no double recovery.
Sec. 1204. Severability.
Sec. 1205. Effective dates; phase-in; non-retroactivity.
Sec. 1206. Congressional review and sunset hearing.
Congress finds the following:
(a) Pollution, ecological degradation, biodiversity loss, hazardous releases, and greenhouse gas accumulation impose substantial burdens on interstate and foreign commerce, public health, labor markets, agriculture, fisheries, housing, transportation, insurance, disaster response, Federal spending, and national security.
(b) Environmental harm is often cumulative, delayed in manifestation, cross-jurisdictional, and difficult to redress through fragmented existing remedies alone.
(c) Entities that own, control, finance, direct, insure, underwrite, or knowingly benefit from harmful conduct may externalize substantial costs onto workers, communities, Tribal governments, States, local governments, taxpayers, and future generations.
(d) Existing Federal law appropriately prohibits and punishes many environmental violations, but does not provide a unified Federal framework for severe, widespread, or long-term ecological destruction, for cumulative climate-related damage, or for systematic concealment of such harm.
(e) A modern national framework should distinguish among criminal, civil, administrative, restorative, and disclosure remedies; reserve incarceration for culpable conduct; provide fair notice and judicial review; and preserve economic practicality while prioritizing environmental protection and planetary sustainability.
(f) The United States has a compelling sovereign interest in preventing environmental harm to Federal lands, waters, wildlife, fisheries, infrastructure, military installations, public health, and the fiscal integrity of Federal programs.
(g) Transparent measurement, standardized attribution, and consistent reporting are necessary to align environmental accountability with the scale of modern industrial and financial activity.
(h) Communities that bear repeated or concentrated environmental burdens, including many low-income, rural, Tribal, coastal, agricultural, and industrial communities, require priority consideration in enforcement and restoration.
The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to establish a comprehensive Federal regime governing criminal and civil liability for major environmental harm and climate-related damage;
(2) to define and codify Federal offenses known as Crimes Against the Earth;
(3) to impose enforceable duties of prevention, disclosure, due care, remediation, and restoration on covered persons;
(4) to expand accountability for corporations, executives, control persons, beneficial owners, financial actors, contractors, and governmental actors acting in proprietary or operational capacities;
(5) to create standardized scientific, economic, and environmental measurement and attribution frameworks;
(6) to provide strong whistleblower protections, incentives, citizen-suit rights, and qui tam remedies;
(7) to preserve room for lawful enterprise, innovation, and economically practical compliance while ensuring that severe environmental costs are not shifted to the public; and
(8) to strengthen long-term environmental stewardship, intergenerational equity, and national resilience.
Congress enacts this Act pursuant to its powers under article I, section 8 of the Constitution of the United States, including the powers to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, spend for the general welfare, define and punish offenses on the high seas and against the law of nations, and make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution those powers; pursuant to article IV, section 3, clause 2 of such Constitution; and pursuant to all other powers vested in Congress.
In this Act:
(1) Administrator.—The term “Administrator” means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, except as otherwise expressly provided.
(2) Affiliated group.—The term “affiliated group” means 2 or more persons under common control or common beneficial ownership.
(3) Attributable emissions.—The term “attributable emissions” means greenhouse gas emissions that are attributable to a person under this Act, including direct operational emissions and, to the extent expressly provided by section 504 or 603, emissions from controlled affiliates, covered products, or financed activities.
(4) Attributable share.—The term “attributable share” means the proportion of relevant cumulative emissions or relevant cumulative harm assigned to a defendant under section 504.
(5) Beneficial owner.—The term “beneficial owner” means any person who, directly or indirectly, through any contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship, or otherwise, has or shares voting power, investment power, the right to receive economic benefit, or material power to direct management or capital allocation with respect to a covered entity or covered activity.
(6) Board.—The term “Board” means the Interagency Scientific and Economic Assessment Board established under section 901.
(7) Climate-related damage.—The term “climate-related damage” means physical injury, adaptation cost, resilience expenditure, natural-resource damage, health-monitoring cost, property damage, infrastructure loss, displacement cost, subsistence loss, cultural-resource loss, or economic loss associated through reliable scientific or economic methods with anthropogenic greenhouse gas pollution or its reasonably foreseeable consequences.
(8) Control person.—The term “control person” means a person who possesses actual power, directly or indirectly, to direct the management, operations, or capital allocation of a covered entity or covered activity.
(9) Covered activity.—The term “covered activity” means an activity subject to this Act under section 202 or 203, including a high-risk industrial activity, a covered financial transaction, a disclosure obligation, or a monitored emissions source.
(10) Covered environmental report.—The term “covered environmental report” means any report, certification, filing, plan, reserve disclosure, transition plan, emissions report, bond filing, or incident notice required by this Act.
(11) Ecological destruction.—The term “ecological destruction” means environmental harm that is severe and either widespread or long-term.
(12) Environmental accountability program.—The term “environmental accountability program” means a program required under section 302.
(13) Environmental harm.—The term “environmental harm” means any direct or indirect adverse change to air, water, soil, sediment, wildlife, habitat, ecosystem services, biodiversity, or public health arising from pollution, resource extraction, land conversion, waste handling, emissions, or related conduct.
(14) Family office.—The term “family office” means a company, partnership, trust, or other entity established primarily to manage the investments or affairs of one or more related natural persons and exempted or excluded from registration as an investment adviser under Federal law.
(15) Federal environmental law.—The term “Federal environmental law” means this Act and any provision of the Clean Air Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and any regulation, permit, order, or consent decree issued thereunder.
(16) Greenhouse gas.—The term “greenhouse gas” means carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen trifluoride, and any other gas designated by rule under this Act because of its radiative forcing characteristics.
(17) High-risk activity.—The term “high-risk activity” means an activity that, because of scale, substances used, location, waste stream, emissions profile, or accident potential, presents a material risk of a major environmental incident, including any ultra-hazardous activity described in section 508.
(18) Indian Tribe.—The term “Indian Tribe” has the meaning given that term in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
(19) Knowing; knowingly.—The terms “knowing” and “knowingly” mean actual knowledge, deliberate ignorance, or awareness of a high probability of the existence of the relevant fact, unless the person actually believed the fact did not exist.
(20) Large covered entity.—The term “large covered entity” means a covered entity described in section 203(b).
(21) Long-term.—The term “long-term” means effects reasonably expected to persist for more than 5 years absent substantial remediation, restoration, or natural recovery.
(22) Major environmental incident.—The term “major environmental incident” means an event, series of related events, or continuing condition that results in 1 or more of the following:
(A) Death or serious bodily injury to 5 or more persons.
(B) Evacuation or shelter-in-place affecting 100 or more persons for 48 hours or more.
(C) Estimated response, restoration, adaptation, relocation, or public health cost exceeding $25,000,000.
(D) Destruction or severe degradation of 100 acres or more of a critical ecological resource or 1,000 acres or more of other habitat.
(E) Material population-level injury to a listed species or a mass mortality event meeting thresholds established by rule under section 902.
(F) Unlawful, concealed, or materially misreported greenhouse gas emissions of not less than 1,000,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in any 12-month period, or 5,000,000 metric tons over any 5-year period.
(G) Material contamination of a public drinking water system serving 10,000 or more persons.
(H) A release, discharge, explosion, spill, collapse, or similar occurrence that creates an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment.
(23) Material contribution.—The term “material contribution”—
(A) for direct physical or ecological harm, means conduct that was a substantial factor in producing the harm; and
(B) for cumulative climate-related damage, means attributable emissions or financed emissions of not less than 250,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in any year, 1,000,000 metric tons in the aggregate over any 5-year period, or any lower amount that a court determines is not de minimis in light of the scale and type of harm at issue.
(24) Person.—The term “person” means any natural person, corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, trust, estate, family office, joint venture, insurer, reinsurer, investment adviser, asset manager, bank, governmental entity, or other legal entity.
(25) Public issuer.—The term “public issuer” means an issuer required to file periodic reports under section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
(26) Reckless; recklessly.—The terms “reckless” and “recklessly” mean conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding person would observe.
(27) Responsible corporate officer.—The term “responsible corporate officer” means an officer, director, manager, plant superintendent, environmental compliance officer, or similar person who had authority to prevent, detect, correct, or report the relevant conduct.
(28) Restoration cost.—The term “restoration cost” means the cost of returning an injured resource, ecosystem, community resource, or public infrastructure to baseline condition, or, where restoration is not reasonably possible, the cost of replacement, compensatory restoration, or equivalent public benefit.
(29) Severe.—The term “severe” means harm involving serious degradation of ecosystem function, serious impairment of air, water, or soil quality, significant mortality, significant public health injury, or estimated response, restoration, adaptation, or public health cost exceeding $25,000,000.
(30) Social cost schedule.—The term “social cost schedule” means the schedule promulgated under section 903.
(31) State.—The term “State” means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territory or possession of the United States.
(32) Tribal government.—The term “Tribal government” means the recognized governing body of an Indian Tribe.
(33) Ultra-hazardous activity.—The term “ultra-hazardous activity” means any activity identified in section 508(b).
(34) Widespread.—The term “widespread” means harm affecting an area exceeding 1,000 acres, 10 linear miles of waterway or coastline, 2 or more counties or equivalent jurisdictions, 2 or more Tribal jurisdictions, or crossing State, territorial, or international borders.
(35) Willful; willfully.—The terms “willful” and “willfully” mean intentional conduct undertaken with knowledge that the conduct is unlawful, or with specific intent to evade a legal duty.
(a) General applicability.—This Act applies to any person that—
(1) engages in interstate or foreign commerce and carries out a covered activity;
(2) owns, operates, finances, insures, underwrites, advises, manages, or controls a covered activity;
(3) conducts a covered activity on Federal land, in Federal waters, on the outer Continental Shelf, in Indian country, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States;
(4) files, furnishes, certifies, audits, or materially contributes to a covered environmental report; or
(5) is otherwise described in section 203.
(b) Governmental entities.—
(1) The United States, each Federal agency, and each State, territorial, Tribal, or local governmental entity shall be subject to this Act to the same extent as any nongovernmental person when acting as owner, operator, permittee, contractor, market participant, financier, insurer, or proprietary actor.
(2) No criminal fine shall be imposed upon the United States.
(3) No State, territorial, Tribal, or local governmental entity shall be liable under this Act solely by reason of discretionary permitting, rulemaking, adjudication, or emergency-response functions, absent gross negligence, corruption, bad-faith concealment, or intentional misconduct.
(4) Nothing in this subsection shall preclude criminal or civil liability of any officer, employee, contractor, or agent.
(c) De minimis household conduct.—This Act does not apply to ordinary, noncommercial household conduct, except where such conduct involves intentional unlawful dumping, trafficking, concealment, or conduct causing a major environmental incident.
(d) No limitation on other law.—Nothing in this Act limits liability under title 18, United States Code, or any other Federal statute.
(a) Covered entities.—A person is a covered entity if the person or any facility, affiliate, or controlled activity of the person—
(1) is subject to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program or any successor Federal greenhouse gas reporting regime;
(2) emits, releases, or causes attributable emissions of 25,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent annually;
(3) handles, disposes of, manufactures, stores, transports, extracts, refines, injects, incinerates, or otherwise manages hazardous substances, toxic pollutants, oil, gas, coal, mining waste, tailings, or other substances or materials above thresholds established by rule under section 902;
(4) engages in a high-risk activity; or
(5) is a public issuer or a covered financial institution under subsection (c).
(b) Large covered entities.—A covered entity is a large covered entity if the entity, taken together with its affiliated group—
(1) has annual attributable emissions of 1,000,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent;
(2) has annual gross revenue exceeding $1,000,000,000 and engages in a high-risk activity; or
(3) holds assets or market capitalization exceeding $5,000,000,000 and has material environmental or climate risk requiring enhanced controls under this Act.
(c) Covered financial institutions.—For purposes of this Act, the term “covered financial institution” includes—
(1) any insured depository institution, bank holding company, savings and loan holding company, or nonbank financial company with total consolidated assets exceeding $10,000,000,000;
(2) any insurance or reinsurance company with annual written premiums exceeding $1,000,000,000;
(3) any registered broker-dealer, investment adviser, investment company, commodity pool operator, or futures commission merchant with assets under management, net capital, or equivalent regulated assets exceeding $10,000,000,000; and
(4) any family office or private investment vehicle that directs, finances, or controls covered transactions with an aggregate value exceeding $500,000,000 in any 12-month period.
(d) Aggregation.—For purposes of this section, emissions, revenues, assets, and transaction values shall be aggregated across affiliated groups, controlled funds, and special-purpose entities where required to prevent evasion.
(a) This Act supplements, and does not displace, any duty, remedy, or penalty under any other Federal environmental law unless this Act expressly provides otherwise.
(b) Compliance with a permit, registration, or license shall be relevant evidence, but shall not constitute a complete defense if—
(1) the permit was obtained or maintained through fraud, concealment, or material omission;
(2) the holder materially misreported monitoring, emissions, releases, or risks;
(3) the permit or authorization does not by its terms address the conduct at issue; or
(4) the person otherwise violated this Act.
(c) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to occupy the field of environmental, tort, or public health law.
(a) Criminal matters.—No person shall be convicted under title IV except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of each element of the offense, including the mental state specified for that offense.
(b) Civil matters.—Except as otherwise provided, liability under titles V and VI shall be established by a preponderance of the evidence.
(c) Attribution and cumulative harm.—In actions involving cumulative climate-related damage, a plaintiff need not prove exclusive but-for causation if the plaintiff proves—
(1) a scientifically reliable causal pathway between anthropogenic greenhouse gas pollution and the type of harm at issue;
(2) that the defendant is a material contributor; and
(3) that the damages sought are apportioned under section 504 or are otherwise recoverable under this Act.
(d) Adverse inference for nonreporting.—If a defendant fails to retain records or submit reports required by this Act, a court may draw an adverse inference against the defendant regarding attributable emissions, knowledge, and economic benefit, unless the defendant proves the failure was substantially justified.
(a) Affirmative defenses.—Except as otherwise provided, a defendant may assert as an affirmative defense that the harm was caused solely by—
(1) an act of war;
(2) an act of God of such exceptional character that the harm could not reasonably have been prevented by due care and prudent planning; or
(3) sabotage or criminal third-party interference by an unrelated person, if the defendant exercised due care and took reasonable precautions.
(b) No defense for financial inability.—Inability to pay shall not eliminate restoration, restitution, or monitoring obligations, but may be considered in structuring payment schedules for civil penalties.
(c) Good-faith compliance efforts.—Documented good-faith compliance efforts may mitigate civil penalties but shall not bar injunctive relief, restoration, restitution, or victim compensation.
(a) Any covered person engaged in a covered activity shall take all reasonable measures, including technically feasible and economically practicable controls, to prevent, minimize, and promptly remediate foreseeable environmental harm and climate-related damage.
(b) In determining whether a covered person satisfied subsection (a), a court or agency shall consider—
(1) the nature and scale of the risk;
(2) the availability and maturity of relevant control technologies or management practices;
(3) industry knowledge and warnings available at the time;
(4) prior violations, notices, audits, and internal warnings;
(5) the comparative cost of prevention relative to the magnitude of likely harm;
(6) the vulnerability of affected populations and resources;
(7) whether safer alternative practices or products were reasonably available; and
(8) whether the person delayed prevention for short-term financial gain.
(c) A violation of this section may serve as a predicate for liability under titles IV, V, and VI.
(a) Each large covered entity shall establish, maintain, and periodically update an environmental accountability program that includes—
(1) a written risk inventory identifying material environmental, ecological, and climate risks;
(2) a chain of command assigning responsibility for compliance, incident response, and board reporting;
(3) internal controls for emissions measurement, monitoring, reporting, and retention of records;
(4) procedures for internal complaints, anti-retaliation protection, and prompt escalation of material risks;
(5) periodic independent audits not less frequently than once every 3 years;
(6) workforce training tailored to operational risk; and
(7) corrective-action protocols for identified noncompliance.
(b) The Administrator may, by rule, establish simplified program requirements for covered entities that are not large covered entities.
(a) Each large covered entity and public issuer shall designate—
(1) a committee of the board, or equivalent governing body, with responsibility for oversight of environmental and climate risk; and
(2) a senior executive officer to serve as Chief Environmental Accountability Officer or to perform equivalent duties.
(b) The chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and the officer designated under subsection (a)(2) shall annually certify, under penalty of law, that—
(1) the covered environmental report fairly presents, in all material respects, the environmental and climate-risk condition of the entity;
(2) the certifying officers are responsible for establishing and maintaining internal controls required by this Act;
(3) such officers have designed, supervised, or evaluated such controls within 90 days before certification; and
(4) any material weaknesses, known incidents, unresolved major risks, and material noncompliance have been disclosed.
(c) A certification under this section shall not require prediction of all future climate outcomes, but shall require truthful disclosure of known risks, reasonably based assumptions, and material uncertainties.
(a) Covered entities shall maintain records sufficient to verify compliance with this Act for not less than 10 years.
(b) Any covered entity that experiences or becomes aware of a major environmental incident, or of facts reasonably likely to constitute such an incident, shall notify the Administrator and affected State, Tribal, territorial, and local authorities within 24 hours after discovery.
(c) A detailed incident report shall be submitted within 7 days, and a final corrective-action report within 30 days, unless extended for good cause by the Administrator.
(d) Any person required to monitor emissions, releases, effluent, waste handling, containment, or environmental conditions shall use approved methods under section 902 and shall not disable, bypass, or materially degrade monitoring equipment or methods.
(e) Reports required by this section shall be filed electronically in a form prescribed by the Administrator, with appropriate protections for trade secrets, provided that emissions quantities, release magnitudes, hazard categories, affected areas, and public health warnings shall not be withheld from the public on trade-secret grounds.
(a) Each large covered entity engaged in a high-risk activity shall maintain financial assurance sufficient to cover reasonably foreseeable response, restoration, health-monitoring, relocation, and emergency costs.
(b) Financial assurance may be satisfied through 1 or more of the following:
(1) surety bond;
(2) letter of credit;
(3) trust fund;
(4) environmental impairment insurance;
(5) self-insurance approved by the Administrator upon a showing of sufficient net worth and liquidity; or
(6) any comparable instrument approved by rule.
(c) The existence of a bond or insurance policy shall not limit liability.
(d) Any policy providing coverage under this section shall contain reporting terms requiring notice to the Administrator of cancellation, material limitation, or exhaustion.
(a) Each large covered entity engaged in a high-risk activity shall prepare, maintain, and test an incident-prevention and emergency-response plan.
(b) Such plan shall include—
(1) worst-case release or loss scenarios;
(2) worker and community notification procedures;
(3) coordination procedures with first responders, public health agencies, Tribal governments where applicable, and downstream or downwind communities;
(4) shutoff, containment, evacuation, shelter-in-place, and remediation protocols; and
(5) annual tabletop or field exercises.
(a) A large covered entity shall conduct reasonable, risk-based due diligence regarding contractors, waste handlers, transporters, suppliers, and controlled distributors whose conduct may materially affect compliance with this Act.
(b) Such due diligence shall be proportionate to risk and may include contractual controls, audit rights, traceability, verification of permits, corrective-action rights, and termination rights.
(c) A person shall not avoid liability under this Act by outsourcing, fragmenting ownership, or using special-purpose entities, brokers, contractors, or sham affiliates to carry out covered conduct.
(a) Each large covered entity with attributable emissions of 1,000,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, and each covered financial institution with material financed emissions, shall submit a 5-year climate transition and restoration plan.
(b) Each plan shall include—
(1) baseline attributable emissions;
(2) material physical and transition risks;
(3) reasonable interim targets and principal measures for reduction, substitution, containment, or restoration;
(4) capital-allocation assumptions and material dependencies;
(5) workforce, contractor, and community impacts;
(6) contingency measures for severe-weather, supply-chain, or infrastructure disruption; and
(7) a restoration component addressing residual harm.
(c) Failure to achieve a projected target shall not, by itself, constitute a violation if the plan was prepared in good faith, based on reasonable assumptions, and materially implemented.
(d) It shall be a violation of this section to—
(1) fail to submit a required plan;
(2) knowingly include materially false information in such plan; or
(3) materially abandon, without explanation and corrective disclosure, control measures identified as necessary to prevent foreseeable major harm.
(a) The Administrator or Attorney General may reduce otherwise applicable civil penalties by not more than 75 percent where a person—
(1) voluntarily discovers and discloses a violation within 21 days;
(2) discloses before the commencement of a government investigation;
(3) promptly corrects the violation and remediates resulting harm;
(4) cooperates fully with the investigation;
(5) takes steps to prevent recurrence; and
(6) did not engage in willful, knowing, or reckless conduct.
(b) No reduction under this section shall bar criminal prosecution, victim compensation, restitution, or restoration.
(c) No reduction shall be available for violations causing death, serious bodily injury, or a major environmental incident, unless the Attorney General certifies extraordinary cooperation.
(a) The Administrator shall establish technical assistance and model compliance tools for covered entities with fewer than 500 employees and less than 50,000 metric tons of attributable emissions annually.
(b) Reporting and program requirements for such entities may be phased in over 24 months, except where the entity engages in a high-risk activity or causes a major environmental incident.
(c) Nothing in this section limits liability for fraud, intentional unlawful disposal, or major environmental incidents.
(a) Offenses under this title are hereby designated Federal offenses known as Crimes Against the Earth.
(b) No person shall be sentenced to imprisonment under this title absent proof of the mental state specified for the offense charged.
(c) Unless otherwise provided, each day of a continuing offense shall constitute a separate offense.
(a) Whoever knowingly violates section 301, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 603, or 604, or knowingly violates any Federal environmental law, and thereby causes ecological destruction, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both.
(b) If the offense results in death, the defendant shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 30 years, or both.
(c) An organization convicted under this section shall be fined an amount not greater than the greatest of—
(1) $50,000,000;
(2) twice the gross pecuniary gain derived from the offense or twice the gross pecuniary loss caused by the offense; or
(3) 15 percent of the average annual gross receipts of the organization during the 3 fiscal years preceding conviction.
(a) Whoever recklessly, or through a knowing pattern of disregard after written notice of material noncompliance, violates section 301, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 603, or 604, or any Federal environmental law, and thereby causes ecological destruction or a major environmental incident, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.
(b) An organization convicted under this section shall be fined an amount not greater than the greatest of—
(1) $25,000,000;
(2) twice the gross pecuniary gain derived from the offense or twice the gross pecuniary loss caused by the offense; or
(3) 8 percent of the average annual gross receipts of the organization during the 3 fiscal years preceding conviction.
(a) Whoever knowingly or recklessly—
(1) conceals, falsifies, or materially understates emissions, climate risk, or required mitigation data;
(2) disables, bypasses, or materially interferes with required monitoring, reporting, accounting, or internal controls; or
(3) violates a final order, material mitigation requirement, or corrective-action duty issued under this Act,
and thereby causes, conceals, or materially misattributes attributable emissions of not less than 1,000,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent during any 12-month period, or defeats a material safeguard intended to prevent a major environmental incident, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 15 years, or both.
(b) An organization convicted under this section shall be fined an amount not greater than the greatest of—
(1) $30,000,000;
(2) twice the gross pecuniary gain derived from the offense or twice the gross pecuniary loss caused by the offense; or
(3) 10 percent of the average annual gross receipts of the organization during the 3 fiscal years preceding conviction.
(a) Whoever, while engaged in an ultra-hazardous activity, acts with gross negligence and thereby causes a major environmental incident shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.
(b) If the offense results in death, the defendant shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.
(c) An organization convicted under this section shall be fined not more than the greatest of—
(1) $10,000,000;
(2) twice the gross pecuniary gain derived from the offense or twice the gross pecuniary loss caused by the offense; or
(3) 4 percent of the average annual gross receipts of the organization during the 3 fiscal years preceding conviction.
(a) Whoever knowingly—
(1) makes or uses a false statement, record, certification, estimate, or omission in a covered environmental report;
(2) tampers with a monitoring device, monitoring method, sample, test, or chain of custody;
(3) destroys, alters, or conceals material environmental or emissions records;
(4) mislabels, misclassifies, or disguises pollutants, waste, or releases; or
(5) uses a sham transaction, special-purpose entity, or affiliate arrangement to evade a legal duty under this Act,
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.
(b) If the offense materially contributes to a major environmental incident, the maximum term of imprisonment shall be 15 years.
(a) Whoever knowingly threatens, retaliates against, intimidates, harasses, discharges, demotes, blacklists, or otherwise discriminates against any person for engaging in protected activity under this Act shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.
(b) Whoever corruptly obstructs, impedes, influences, or attempts to influence an investigation, audit, inspection, or proceeding under this Act shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.
(a) Whoever conspires to commit an offense under this title, or aids and abets such offense, shall be subject to the same penalties as a principal.
(b) Any person that, with actual knowledge that funds, underwriting, insurance, reinsurance, advisory services, or transactional services will be used principally to commit an offense under section 402, 403, 404, or 406, materially finances or facilitates such offense, shall be subject to the same penalties as a principal.
(c) No person shall be liable under subsection (b) solely by reason of passive investment without board, management, or capital-allocation control and without actual knowledge.
(a) A responsible corporate officer or control person shall be criminally liable under this title if the Government proves that the officer or control person—
(1) had authority to prevent, detect, correct, or report the conduct;
(2) knew of, recklessly disregarded, or was grossly negligent in failing to know of the conduct; and
(3) failed to take reasonable steps within such person’s authority.
(b) A beneficial owner shall not be criminally liable solely by reason of ownership status, but may be liable if the Government proves actual operational control, decisive capital-allocation authority, or knowing direction of the unlawful conduct.
(a) In addition to any other penalty, a court sentencing an organization under this title may order—
(1) restitution to victims;
(2) restoration or compensatory restoration;
(3) forfeiture of proceeds, avoided costs, or assets used in the offense;
(4) probation for not less than 3 years and not more than 10 years;
(5) appointment of an independent monitor;
(6) enhanced public reporting;
(7) suspension of extraordinary distributions, including stock buybacks, dividends, or similar distributions, until material restitution and restoration obligations are funded;
(8) debarment or suspension from Federal contracts, permits, leases, grants, loans, guarantees, or other forms of Federal assistance; and
(9) officer and director bars for responsible individuals.
(b) In imposing sentence, the court shall consider—
(1) the scale and duration of harm;
(2) community vulnerability and environmental justice burden;
(3) prior violations or warnings;
(4) economic benefit of noncompliance;
(5) obstruction or concealment;
(6) cooperation and remediation; and
(7) impact on workers and essential public services, provided that worker impact shall not excuse criminal conduct.
(a) Notwithstanding section 3282 of title 18, United States Code, a prosecution under this title may be commenced within 10 years after the later of—
(1) the last act constituting the offense; or
(2) the date on which material concealment ended.
(b) Venue shall lie in any district in which—
(1) the conduct occurred;
(2) the harm occurred;
(3) a required report should have been filed or was filed;
(4) a defendant resides, is found, or transacts business; or
(5) in the case of a nationally applicable reporting offense, the District of Columbia.
(a) Any covered person shall be civilly liable under this title for harm resulting from—
(1) violation of title III or VI;
(2) conduct constituting an offense under title IV, regardless of whether criminal charges are filed;
(3) strict civil liability under section 508; or
(4) material contribution to cumulative climate-related damage under section 504.
(b) Civil liability under this title is in addition to, and not in lieu of, liability under any other provision of law.
(a) The Attorney General, any State attorney general, any Tribal government, and any local government that has incurred or will incur response, adaptation, restoration, or public-health costs may bring a civil action under this title.
(b) The United States and any State or Tribal government acting as natural resource trustee may recover natural-resource damages, restoration costs, loss of ecosystem services, and associated assessment costs.
(c) A local government may recover reasonably necessary expenditures for adaptation, resilience, emergency response, public infrastructure repair, relocation, housing stabilization, stormwater management, wildfire prevention, or other public measures made necessary by environmental harm or climate-related damage.
(a) Any person who suffers concrete injury in fact, including property damage, bodily injury, exposure requiring medical monitoring, loss of income, displacement, loss of subsistence use, or loss of use or enjoyment of affected resources, may bring a civil action under this title.
(b) Any person bringing an action under this section shall satisfy constitutional standing requirements.
(c) Relief under this section may include compensatory damages, medical monitoring, declaratory relief, injunctive relief, reasonable attorney fees where authorized, and any other relief authorized by this title.
(a) In any action alleging cumulative climate-related damage, the plaintiff may establish causation by demonstrating, through methods recognized under section 904, that—
(1) the type of harm at issue is reliably associated with anthropogenic greenhouse gas pollution;
(2) the defendant is a material contributor; and
(3) the damages sought correspond to the defendant’s attributable share or to joint liability under section 505.
(b) The court shall apportion damages according to each defendant’s attributable share, except where joint and several liability applies under section 505.
(c) In determining attributable share, the court shall consider—
(1) verified attributable emissions during the relevant period;
(2) emissions from controlled affiliates;
(3) product-use emissions for covered fossil carbon production, refining, importation, or equivalent covered activities, to the extent established by rule under section 902;
(4) financed emissions or insured emissions where section 603 applies;
(5) verified removals or destruction of greenhouse gases not otherwise counted; and
(6) any material concealment, underreporting, or spoliation by the defendant.
(d) For conduct occurring after the effective date under section 1205, a relevant period shall ordinarily begin on such effective date unless the court finds that a longer period is necessary to address continuing releases, continuing concealment, or successor-evasion conduct.
(e) Any carbon price, fee, or equivalent State or Federal payment previously made for the same emissions shall be credited to avoid duplicative recovery.
(a) Persons whose conduct combines to produce indivisible direct environmental harm shall be jointly and severally liable.
(b) In cumulative climate-harm cases, liability shall be proportionate under section 504, except that joint and several liability shall apply where defendants—
(1) acted in concert;
(2) conspired;
(3) knowingly concealed emissions or risks in a manner that materially frustrated apportionment; or
(4) used affiliated structures to evade allocation.
(c) Any defendant held liable under this title may seek contribution from any other responsible person.
(d) A successor entity shall be liable where—
(1) liability is expressly assumed;
(2) the transaction amounts to a de facto merger or continuation;
(3) the transaction was structured primarily to evade liability; or
(4) the successor continues the same operations and materially benefits from the predecessor’s noncompliance.
Damages recoverable under this title include—
(1) response, containment, cleanup, and restoration costs;
(2) natural-resource damages and loss of ecosystem services;
(3) adaptation and resilience costs reasonably incurred or to be incurred;
(4) public-health monitoring and medical surveillance costs;
(5) relocation and temporary housing costs;
(6) property damage, infrastructure damage, and business interruption losses;
(7) wage loss and other economic displacement losses;
(8) cultural-resource and subsistence losses, including those affecting Tribal communities, to the extent permitted by law;
(9) disgorgement of avoided costs, unjust enrichment, or gains causally connected to the violation; and
(10) treble damages for knowing concealment, spoliation, willful noncompliance after final notice, or repeated fraudulent violation.
In addition to damages, a court may order—
(1) injunctive relief;
(2) technology upgrades, containment, or process changes;
(3) cessation or suspension of operations in whole or in part;
(4) mandatory monitoring;
(5) independent audits;
(6) public warning and disclosure measures;
(7) community benefit or restoration trusts;
(8) habitat restoration, compensatory restoration, or land acquisition for conservation;
(9) medically appropriate health monitoring for exposed populations; and
(10) any other equitable remedy necessary to prevent recurrence or restore affected resources.
(a) Any person engaging in an ultra-hazardous activity shall be strictly liable, without regard to fault, for a major environmental incident arising from such activity.
(b) For purposes of this section, ultra-hazardous activities include—
(1) offshore oil or gas exploration, drilling, production, or transport;
(2) operation of a mining tailings impoundment, waste-rock storage system, or comparable mine-waste facility over thresholds established by rule;
(3) underground injection or geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide or disposal of hazardous waste above thresholds established by rule;
(4) hazardous-waste treatment, storage, incineration, or disposal above thresholds established by rule;
(5) transportation by pipeline of dense-phase carbon dioxide, oil, or hazardous liquid above thresholds established by rule; and
(6) manufacture or storage of acutely hazardous substances above thresholds established by rule.
(c) Liability under this section includes response, restoration, health monitoring, relocation, direct economic loss, and natural-resource damages.
(d) The only defenses under this section are the defenses described in section 206(a), proven by clear and convincing evidence.
(e) Punitive or treble damages shall not be imposed solely under this section absent proof of the conduct described in section 506(10) or title IV.
(a) Any officer, director, responsible corporate officer, beneficial owner, or control person who knowingly, recklessly, or with gross negligence breaches a duty established by title VI and thereby materially contributes to environmental harm or climate-related damage shall be civilly liable.
(b) Remedies under this section may include—
(1) civil penalties;
(2) disgorgement;
(3) clawback of compensation;
(4) officer or director bars;
(5) injunctions; and
(6) any equitable relief authorized by section 507.
(a) A civil action under this title shall be commenced not later than 6 years after the date the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known of the injury and its probable cause.
(b) For continuing violations, continuing releases, continuing concealment, or latent contamination, the period shall run from the date such conduct or concealment ceased or the injury was discovered, whichever is later.
(c) No limitation period under this section shall bar claims for ongoing injunctive or restorative relief.
(a) Courts shall prevent double recovery for the same injury.
(b) In allocating recovery, courts shall prioritize—
(1) direct victim compensation;
(2) restoration and public-health measures; and
(3) reimbursement of public response and adaptation costs.
(c) Amounts recovered by the United States under this title that are not otherwise directed by court order shall be deposited into the Earth Restoration Trust Fund established by section 1101.
(a) Directors and executive officers of each large covered entity and public issuer owe a Federal duty of prudent environmental oversight to establish and oversee a reasonable system of compliance, monitoring, internal reporting, and risk control commensurate with the entity’s environmental and climate risk.
(b) A breach of this duty occurs where such person knowingly or recklessly—
(1) fails to implement a reasonable reporting and control system;
(2) ignores persistent warning signs, audits, or notices of material noncompliance; or
(3) approves or tolerates business practices that materially elevate foreseeable risk without reasonable mitigation.
(c) This section establishes an additional Federal duty and does not preempt State fiduciary law.
(a) A parent entity, private equity sponsor, controlling shareholder, or beneficial owner shall be liable under this Act where the plaintiff proves—
(1) actual operational control, or decisive capital-allocation authority, over the covered conduct; and
(2) knowing direction, reckless disregard, or grossly negligent failure to act after notice of material risk.
(b) Liability shall not arise solely by reason of passive ownership in a diversified fund lacking governance rights, absent actual control, knowing direction, or deliberate evasion.
(c) No person may evade liability by dividing ownership, fragmenting operations, using shell entities, or conducting asset transfers designed primarily to impair collection or responsibility.
(a) Each covered financial institution shall conduct enhanced environmental due diligence before providing financing, underwriting, advisory, insurance, reinsurance, or equivalent support for—
(1) any high-risk activity with a transaction value exceeding $25,000,000;
(2) any transaction involving a counterparty subject to a final emergency order under section 706; or
(3) any transaction for expansion of an operation subject to a final adjudicated pattern of material noncompliance.
(b) Enhanced due diligence shall include reasonable inquiry into—
(1) compliance history;
(2) existing incident-prevention controls;
(3) sufficiency of bonds and insurance;
(4) material environmental justice concerns;
(5) counterparty transition and restoration plans, where applicable; and
(6) the risk that the transaction will materially facilitate harm or evasion.
(c) A covered financial institution shall not knowingly finance, insure, reinsure, or underwrite expansion of a covered activity that is subject to an unresolved final emergency order or final judicial finding of ecological destruction, unless a remediation plan approved by the appropriate agency is in place.
(d) A violation of this section may be enforced civilly under titles V and VII and, if accompanied by actual knowledge and material facilitation of an offense under title IV, criminally under section 408.
(a) Not later than 18 months after enactment, the Securities and Exchange Commission shall promulgate rules requiring each public issuer covered by this Act to disclose, at a minimum—
(1) attributable emissions, consistent with section 902;
(2) material physical and transition risks;
(3) material environmental incidents and unresolved notices of violation;
(4) climate transition and restoration plans, where applicable;
(5) environmental reserves and contingent liabilities; and
(6) governance and internal-control arrangements required by this Act.
(b) A filing required under subsection (a) shall be deemed a filing under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for purposes of civil and administrative enforcement.
(c) Forward-looking scenario analysis shall receive safe-harbor treatment if made in good faith and accompanied by meaningful cautionary disclosure, but such safe harbor shall not apply to historical facts, known incidents, or present control failures.
(a) If a final judgment establishes that a large covered entity or public issuer knowingly or recklessly violated this Act in a manner that materially inflated earnings, reduced liabilities, or concealed material risk, the court or appropriate agency shall order clawback of incentive-based compensation received by covered executives during the 3 years preceding the judgment, to the extent such compensation was tied to the affected performance metrics.
(b) No entity may indemnify, reimburse, or insure against—
(1) criminal fines imposed on a natural person under this Act; or
(2) civil penalties imposed for knowing or reckless conduct by a natural person.
(c) Nothing in this section prohibits advancement of defense costs subject to repayment if a final nonappealable judgment establishes knowing or reckless misconduct.
(a) Each public issuer and each large covered entity shall assess and disclose material probable and reasonably estimable environmental and climate-related liabilities in a manner consistent with rules promulgated under this Act.
(b) The Administrator and the Securities and Exchange Commission shall coordinate to minimize duplication and maximize interoperability of disclosure systems.
(a) The Environmental Protection Agency shall be the lead civil and administrative agency for this Act, except where this Act assigns authority to another agency.
(b) The Department of Justice shall have exclusive authority to prosecute criminal offenses under title IV.
(c) The Securities and Exchange Commission shall administer sections 604 through 606 with respect to public issuers and regulated market participants under its jurisdiction.
(d) The heads of relevant Federal banking agencies, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security shall carry out the functions assigned by this Act.
(a) There is established within the Environmental Protection Agency an Office of Environmental Accountability and Restoration, headed by an Assistant Administrator.
(b) The Office shall—
(1) administer civil enforcement under this Act;
(2) maintain the National Environmental Accountability Registry;
(3) develop model reporting, bonding, and compliance systems;
(4) administer grants and Trust Fund distributions;
(5) coordinate with State, Tribal, territorial, and local agencies; and
(6) issue annual guidance on implementation priorities.
(a) There is established within the Department of Justice an Office of the Special Climate Prosecutor, headed by a Special Climate Prosecutor appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
(b) The Special Climate Prosecutor shall—
(1) prosecute offenses under title IV;
(2) coordinate with United States Attorneys, the Environmental Crimes Section, and relevant investigative agencies;
(3) issue prosecution guidance;
(4) maintain specialized expertise in scientific attribution, complex financial structures, and environmental crime; and
(5) submit annual public reports to Congress.
(c) The Special Climate Prosecutor shall operate subject to the supervision of the Attorney General.
(a) The President shall establish an Interagency Task Force composed of senior representatives of agencies with responsibilities under this Act.
(b) The Task Force shall coordinate enforcement priorities, data systems, training, import restrictions, public communications, and referrals.
(a) The Administrator, the Attorney General, and the Securities and Exchange Commission may issue subpoenas, require testimony, inspect records, and issue civil investigative demands as necessary to enforce this Act.
(b) In any action to enforce a subpoena or civil investigative demand, jurisdiction shall lie in the appropriate United States district court.
(a) Upon a determination that a person has caused, is causing, or is about to cause a major environmental incident or imminent and substantial endangerment, the Administrator may issue such orders as are necessary to protect health or the environment.
(b) Such orders may require immediate cessation, containment, evacuation planning, temporary shutdown, emergency monitoring, public warning, or other protective measures.
(c) Any person subject to an order under this section shall be entitled to prompt post-deprivation administrative review and judicial review under section 1202.
(a) The Administrator shall promulgate civil penalty schedules under this Act.
(b) In assessing penalties, the agency or court shall consider—
(1) gravity of harm;
(2) culpability;
(3) duration;
(4) economic benefit of noncompliance;
(5) prior history;
(6) cooperation;
(7) self-disclosure;
(8) environmental justice burden;
(9) ability to continue lawful operations without impairing restoration or worker wages; and
(10) any other factor relevant to deterrence and fairness.
The Administrator, in coordination with the Attorney General and the Special Climate Prosecutor, shall submit to Congress and publish an annual report describing—
(1) enforcement priorities;
(2) investigations opened and closed;
(3) penalties assessed and collected;
(4) restitution and restoration obtained;
(5) whistleblower claims and awards;
(6) Trust Fund collections and disbursements; and
(7) measured outcomes under the performance metrics established under this Act.
(a) The Administrator shall establish a multilingual complaint portal for suspected violations of this Act.
(b) The Office of Environmental Accountability and Restoration shall maintain an ombuds function to assist communities, Tribal governments, workers, and small entities.
(a) No employer, contractor, subcontractor, agent, or covered person may discharge, demote, suspend, threaten, harass, blacklist, or otherwise discriminate against any individual because that individual—
(1) provided information relating to a possible violation of this Act;
(2) assisted in an investigation, audit, hearing, or proceeding;
(3) objected to conduct reasonably believed to violate this Act; or
(4) refused to participate in conduct the individual reasonably believed would violate this Act.
(b) Relief shall include reinstatement, double back pay with interest, special damages, litigation costs, and reasonable attorney fees.
(a) If an administrative or judicial action under this Act results in monetary sanctions exceeding $1,000,000, the Secretary of the Treasury shall pay an award to one or more eligible whistleblowers who voluntarily provided original information that materially contributed to the successful action.
(b) Awards under this section shall be not less than 10 percent and not more than 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected.
(c) In determining award amounts, the awarding authority shall consider significance of the information, degree of assistance, timeliness, hardship, and any culpability of the claimant.
(a) The Administrator, Attorney General, and Securities and Exchange Commission shall maintain confidential reporting channels and shall permit anonymous submissions through counsel.
(b) Any agreement, policy, or condition of employment that purports to waive rights under this title shall be void as against public policy.
(c) No predispute arbitration agreement shall be enforceable with respect to a retaliation claim arising under this title.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), any person adversely affected or aggrieved, within the meaning of article III of the Constitution of the United States, may commence a civil action—
(1) against any person alleged to be in violation of this Act; or
(2) against the Administrator or another Federal officer for failure to perform a nondiscretionary duty under this Act.
(b) No action under subsection (a)(1) may be commenced prior to 60 days after written notice, except where the plaintiff alleges an imminent hazard, continuing concealment, or retaliation under title VIII.
(c) The court may award appropriate relief, including injunctive relief, civil penalties payable into the Earth Restoration Trust Fund, litigation costs, and reasonable attorney fees.
(a) Any person may bring a civil action for the United States, under seal, against any person who knowingly—
(1) submits a false covered environmental report;
(2) makes a false certification under this Act;
(3) avoids or decreases an obligation to pay money, penalties, or restoration contributions due under this Act; or
(4) conceals material information in order to frustrate enforcement under this Act.
(b) The complaint shall remain under seal for not less than 90 days and shall be served on the Attorney General and the Special Climate Prosecutor.
(c) The United States may intervene and proceed with the action. If the United States intervenes, the relator shall receive not less than 15 percent and not more than 25 percent of the proceeds recovered. If the United States declines and the relator proceeds successfully, the relator shall receive not less than 25 percent and not more than 30 percent.
(d) No court shall award a share to a relator who planned or initiated the underlying fraud, except to the extent the court determines justice requires a reduced share.
(e) A public-disclosure bar and original-source rule substantially similar to those under the False Claims Act shall apply.
(a) In any successful action under this title, the court may award reasonable attorney fees, expert fees, and costs.
(b) The court may grant preliminary reinstatement, expedited discovery, and protective orders where necessary to prevent retaliation or destruction of evidence.
(a) There is established an Interagency Scientific and Economic Assessment Board composed of representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United States Geological Survey, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Department of the Treasury.
(b) The Board shall—
(1) recommend standardized methodologies for emissions measurement, event attribution, natural-resource valuation, and financed-emissions accounting;
(2) recommend the social cost schedule under section 903;
(3) publish uncertainty ranges and confidence conventions; and
(4) maintain a public scientific methodology docket.
(a) Not later than 18 months after enactment, the Administrator shall promulgate uniform protocols for—
(1) direct emissions measurement and estimation;
(2) lifecycle and product-use emissions, where applicable;
(3) financed and insured emissions, where applicable;
(4) remote sensing, satellite observations, and fenceline monitoring;
(5) incident thresholds and mortality thresholds under section 201(22); and
(6) chain-of-custody and evidentiary integrity.
(b) Protocols shall be transparent, peer-reviewed where practicable, technologically neutral where feasible, and updated periodically.
(a) Not later than 180 days after enactment, the Board shall publish a provisional social cost schedule for carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other greenhouse gases covered by this Act.
(b) The provisional schedule shall use the central estimates, adjusted to current dollars, from the most recent comprehensive Federal technical report on the social cost of greenhouse gases published before enactment, unless and until superseded by final rule.
(c) Not later than 18 months after enactment, the Board shall publish a final schedule setting forth default values at 2-percent, 3-percent, and 5-percent discount rates, together with guidance on when each value shall apply.
(d) Courts and agencies shall treat the final schedule as creating a rebuttable presumption regarding valuation of climate-related damages, unless a party proves that another value is more appropriate under the facts and methods recognized under this Act.
(a) Event attribution analyses, source-apportionment analyses, epidemiological evidence, remote-sensing evidence, and other scientifically reliable methods that satisfy Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and conform substantially to protocols under this title shall be admissible in proceedings under this Act.
(b) No claim under this Act shall fail solely because harm is cumulative, probabilistic, or influenced by multiple contributors.
(a) The Administrator shall establish an Environmental Justice Burden Index to identify communities facing elevated cumulative environmental burdens and vulnerability.
(b) The Index shall be used for—
(1) enforcement prioritization;
(2) allocation of Trust Fund resources;
(3) assessment of penalty gravity; and
(4) planning of public outreach and monitoring.
(c) The Index shall not create a private right of action independent of this Act.
(a) The Administrator shall establish a public National Environmental Accountability Registry.
(b) The Registry shall include, to the maximum extent practicable—
(1) covered environmental reports;
(2) major incident notices;
(3) final enforcement actions;
(4) bonds and financial-assurance status;
(5) beneficial ownership information required by rule;
(6) restoration orders; and
(7) Trust Fund disbursement information.
(c) Trade-secret protection shall be narrowly construed and shall not prevent disclosure of the existence, magnitude, location, timing, or general character of emissions, releases, incidents, violations, or public hazards.
(a) Methodologies under this title shall be reviewed not less frequently than once every 4 years.
(b) Substantive revisions shall be accompanied by a public scientific explanation, opportunity for comment, and external peer review where practicable.
(a) Nothing in this Act preempts any State, Tribal, territorial, or local law affording equal or greater protection, liability, or remedies.
(b) The Administrator may enter into cooperative agreements and issue grants to State, Tribal, territorial, and local agencies for co-enforcement, monitoring, and restoration.
(a) The United States shall consult with affected Tribal governments in implementing this Act where Tribal lands, treaty resources, or Tribal citizens are materially affected.
(b) Nothing in this Act diminishes treaty rights, reserved rights, or Tribal sovereignty.
(c) Indigenous knowledge may be considered in restoration planning with the free, prior, and informed consent of the relevant Tribal government and subject to protections for confidential or culturally sensitive information.
(a) This Act applies to—
(1) any United States person, including any corporation organized under the laws of the United States or of any State, and any controlled foreign affiliate thereof, engaging in covered conduct outside the United States; and
(2) any foreign person whose covered conduct outside the United States causes substantial foreseeable effects within the United States, on Federal lands or waters, in Indian country, in United States securities or commodity markets, or through goods imported into the United States.
(b) In applying this section, a court shall consider due process, minimum contacts, and principles of international comity.
(a) Any person subject to a final judgment under section 402, 403, or 404, or to repeated final civil judgments or orders under this Act, may be debarred or suspended from Federal contracts, leases, permits, grants, loans, guarantees, and other forms of Federal assistance for not less than 3 years and not more than 10 years.
(b) The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Administrator, may deny entry to goods produced through conduct that has been finally adjudicated to constitute ecological destruction under this Act, after notice and an opportunity to be heard.
(c) No Federal agency may approve a new grant, loan, lease, or guarantee for expansion of a project subject to an unresolved final emergency order under section 706.
(a) In order to avoid duplicative recovery and conflicting obligations, a court may credit comparable foreign judgments, settlements, or administrative orders for the same injury, provided such foreign proceeding afforded basic due process.
(b) Nothing in this Act authorizes a private action against a foreign sovereign except to the extent otherwise permitted by law.
There is established in the Treasury of the United States a trust fund to be known as the Earth Restoration Trust Fund.
(a) The following shall be deposited into the Fund:
(1) civil penalties recovered under this Act;
(2) criminal fines and forfeitures recovered under this Act to the extent permitted by law;
(3) disgorgement and restitution amounts not otherwise directed to specific victims;
(4) settlement proceeds allocated to the Fund; and
(5) any appropriations or transfers made available to the Fund.
(b) Subject to appropriations Acts where required, amounts in the Fund shall be allocated as follows:
(1) 60 percent for restoration, adaptation, public health monitoring, and community resilience.
(2) 15 percent for Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, and local enforcement and monitoring capacity.
(3) 10 percent for whistleblower and relator awards.
(4) 10 percent for transition assistance under section 1104.
(5) 5 percent for administration, data systems, and scientific support.
There are authorized to be appropriated, to remain available until expended, for fiscal years 2027 through 2031—
(1) $1,350,000,000 for the Environmental Protection Agency, including the Office of Environmental Accountability and Restoration;
(2) $450,000,000 for the Department of Justice, including the Office of the Special Climate Prosecutor, the Environment and Natural Resources Division, United States Attorneys’ Offices, and associated investigative support;
(3) $275,000,000 for scientific, technical, and damage-assessment support across agencies participating in title IX;
(4) $150,000,000 for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of the Treasury, and other Federal financial regulators carrying out title VI; and
(5) $750,000,000 for grants and transition assistance under section 1104.
(a) The Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Commerce, shall establish grants, loans, and technical-assistance programs to support—
(1) pollution prevention and monitoring upgrades;
(2) safer process substitution;
(3) worker retraining and wage support related to mandated transition measures;
(4) local government resilience and infrastructure adaptation; and
(5) Tribal and rural community restoration and monitoring capacity.
(b) Priority shall be given to projects that reduce future liability while preserving lawful employment and reducing community exposure.
(a) The Inspector General of each agency receiving funds under this Act shall conduct periodic audits.
(b) The Comptroller General of the United States shall report to Congress not later than 4 years after enactment, and every 4 years thereafter, on implementation, enforcement consistency, fiscal effects, and outcomes.
(a) The Administrator, Attorney General, Securities and Exchange Commission, and other relevant agencies shall publish proposed rules necessary to implement this Act not later than 270 days after enactment.
(b) Final rules shall be published not later than 18 months after enactment, except where this Act provides a shorter deadline.
(c) The absence of a final rule shall not excuse any duty that is self-executing by its terms.
(a) Final nationally applicable rules under this Act shall be reviewable in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
(b) Final locally or regionally applicable rules or orders shall be reviewable in the appropriate circuit.
(c) Civil enforcement actions, citizen suits, and qui tam actions under this Act may be brought in United States district court.
(d) Review under this section shall be governed by the Administrative Procedure Act except where this Act provides otherwise.
(a) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit any right, duty, remedy, or cause of action under Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, or local law.
(b) No plaintiff may obtain double recovery for the same injury.
If any provision of this Act, or application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of this Act, and the application of the remaining provisions to any other person or circumstance, shall not be affected.
(a) Titles I, II, VII, VIII, IX, XI, and XII shall take effect on the date of enactment.
(b) Title III shall take effect—
(1) for large covered entities, 1 year after enactment; and
(2) for all other covered entities, 2 years after enactment, except as otherwise provided by rule for high-risk activities.
(c) Title IV shall apply only to conduct occurring on or after the date that is 1 year after enactment.
(d) Title VI shall take effect 18 months after enactment.
(e) No person shall be subject to criminal liability under this Act for conduct occurring before the applicable effective date. Pre-effective-date conduct may be considered only for purposes of notice, pattern, scienter, successor liability, or continuing-release and continuing-concealment theories consistent with due process.
(a) Not later than 10 years after enactment, the Comptroller General shall submit a comprehensive review of this Act to Congress.
(b) Not later than 180 days after receipt of the review under subsection (a), the relevant committees of Congress shall hold oversight hearings regarding reauthorization, amendment, or sunset of appropriations and program authorities under this Act.
(c) Authorization of appropriations under section 1103 shall terminate after fiscal year 2031 unless reauthorized, but the substantive liabilities, duties, and authorities established by this Act shall remain in effect unless otherwise provided by law.
The current federal baseline is fragmented but real: DOJ’s Environmental Crimes Section brings cases nationwide, EPA’s criminal program investigates the most significant environmental crimes, and EPA’s FY2025 enforcement reporting shows nearly 8,300 inspections, 2,127 civil enforcement cases, and more than $1.2 billion in civil penalties, criminal fines, restitution, and other court-ordered relief, alongside 156 defendants charged, more than $600 million in criminal relief, and forfeiture exceeding $1 billion. This draft builds on that machinery rather than inventing an entirely separate enforcement state.
Sections 1–3 and title I. These provisions supply the short title, acronym, findings, purposes, and constitutional predicates. The findings are deliberately written to support interstate-commerce, foreign-commerce, spending, procurement, and Federal-property rationales, while also making explicit that the statute distinguishes criminal punishment from civil and restorative liability.
Title III. This title creates the preventive compliance regime: internal controls, board oversight, monitoring, incident reporting, bonds, emergency planning, and transition plans. The design borrows from existing Federal compliance systems already in place, including EPA’s greenhouse gas reporting framework and EPA’s self-disclosure approach. EPA’s GHGRP already requires annual reporting from roughly 8,000 facilities, and EPA’s Audit Policy already offers penalty mitigation for voluntary discovery, disclosure, correction, and recurrence prevention.
Title V. This title creates a unified Federal cause of action for public and private plaintiffs. It distinguishes direct environmental harm from cumulative climate harm: direct harm can support joint-and-several liability when indivisible, while climate harm is ordinarily apportioned by attributable share unless defendants acted in concert or concealed data. The strict-liability section is modeled conceptually on the logic of CERCLA’s broad cost-recovery framework but extends it to specified ultra-hazardous modern activities and to restoration, relocation, and monitoring costs.
Title VII. This title creates an EPA Office of Environmental Accountability and Restoration and a Senate-confirmed Special Climate Prosecutor within DOJ. That design responds to the reality that current environmental enforcement sits across EPA and DOJ and that specialized capacity matters. It also gives the statute explicit agency roles, which matters more after Loper Bright and West Virginia v. EPA.
Title VIII. These provisions combine three existing Federal models: retaliation protection in the style of Federal whistleblower statutes, monetary awards modeled on SEC’s whistleblower framework, and sealed relator actions modeled on the False Claims Act. SEC’s current whistleblower program uses 10%–30% award ranges in successful actions over $1 million in sanctions, and the FCA remains the canonical Federal qui tam/treble-damages model.
Title X. This title preserves stronger State, Tribal, territorial, and local law; protects treaty rights; adds a targeted extraterritorial hook; and uses import, procurement, and Federal-finance leverage against final repeat violators. The extraterritorial language is drafted around substantial foreseeable domestic effects and due-process limits rather than a boundless universal-jurisdiction theory.
Titles XI and XII. These titles create a dedicated restoration fund, authorize appropriations, establish transition assistance, and add judicial-review, savings, severability, phase-in, and non-retroactivity provisions. The non-retroactivity language is especially important. It preserves a strong forward-looking regime without writing an obvious Ex Post Facto or unfair-retroactivity target into the criminal title.
A second legal design choice is the degree of statutory specificity. Massachusetts v. EPA confirmed that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act’s broad definition of air pollution, but West Virginia v. EPA and Loper Bright together make clear that Congress cannot count on expansive, ambiguity-driven agency power for major economic questions. This draft therefore speaks directly to thresholds, covered actors, scientific methodologies, judicial review, and penalty architecture.
A useful international benchmark exists as well. The EU’s 2024 environmental crime directive requires Member States to criminalize serious environmental harm, including some serious-negligence cases, and to impose corporate liability, restoration, data collection, training, and specialized enforcement; the EU climate law separately supplies a long-term statutory framework for climate planning. This draft borrows the enforcement logic, but with stronger Federal civil-damages and private-action machinery suited to U.S. law.
One more reason for statutory disclosure language is current regulatory instability. The SEC adopted climate-related disclosure rules in March 2024, but in March 2025 voted to stop defending those rules in court. This draft therefore hard-codes the baseline disclosure duty into statute instead of relying only on agency rule.
This is an analytical estimate, not an official CBO score.
As a baseline, EPA’s FY2026 budget request is $4.16 billion with 12,856 FTE, while DOJ’s FY2026 direct request for the Environment and Natural Resources Division is about $111.2 million with 342 FTE after offsets. The Act therefore assumes a meaningful but still plausible scale-up rather than a wholly new bureaucracy from zero.
Year 1 outlays: about $2.98 billion. Year 1 receipts: about $1.60 billion. Net federal effect: about -$1.38 billion.
5-year outlays: about $15.48 billion. 5-year receipts: about $11.50 billion. Net: about -$3.98 billion.
10-year outlays: about $29.73 billion. 10-year receipts: about $26.35 billion. Net: about -$3.38 billion.
30-year outlays: about $79.73 billion. 30-year receipts: about $80.85 billion. Net: about +$1.13 billion.
Year 1 outlays: about $3.04 billion. Year 1 receipts: about $1.64 billion.
5-year outlays: about $16.54 billion. 5-year receipts: about $12.34 billion.
10-year outlays: about $33.49 billion. 10-year receipts: about $30.05 billion.
30-year outlays: about $111.74 billion. 30-year receipts: about $115.08 billion. Net: about +$3.34 billion.
Best case: 30-year outlays around $71.8 billion and receipts around $101.1 billion, driven by faster rule stabilization, stronger collections, and fewer catastrophic incidents requiring public spending.
Worst case: 30-year outlays around $91.7 billion and receipts around $52.6 billion, driven by slower rule implementation, heavier litigation drag, and lower collection rates.
Who pays: major emitters, ultra-hazardous operators, repeat violators, parent entities using subsidiaries to isolate risk, public issuers with weak controls, and financial actors that knowingly facilitate prohibited conduct.
Who benefits: affected communities, public infrastructure owners, Tribal governments, taxpayers who currently absorb cleanup and adaptation costs, law-abiding competitors, insurers, and workers at firms that currently face unfair pressure from externalized-cost business models.
Create the interagency task force, stand up interim implementation teams at EPA and DOJ, designate agency leads, issue a cross-agency implementation memo, and publish a public roadmap.
Publish proposed rules, launch the complaint portal, stand up provisional Registry architecture, publish provisional social-cost values, and issue model compliance templates for covered entities and financial institutions.
Finalize the criminal, reporting, monitoring, and bond rules; staff the Special Climate Prosecutor’s office; begin large-entity reporting; begin State, Tribal, and local grant awards; and publish the first national enforcement strategy.
Complete the first full enforcement cycle, publish audited performance results, revise scientific protocols, recalibrate penalty schedules, and deliver the first GAO/IG review-driven legislative update package.
EPA leads civil administration and registry/data systems. DOJ leads criminal prosecution. SEC and financial regulators implement public-company and market-intermediary requirements. NOAA, USGS, DOI, USDA, DOE, HHS, and NIST support attribution and valuation. DHS/CBP implements import restrictions.
1. Reduction in major environmental incidents among covered entities.
2. Time from incident notice to protective order.
3. Share of covered entities with compliant accountability programs.
4. Dollar value of restoration and adaptation funded.
5. Share of Trust Fund benefits reaching high-burden communities.
6. Median time to resolve whistleblower claims.
7. Verified reduction in attributable emissions among entities under section 308 plans.
8. Rate of repeat violations after final enforcement action.
The RESPONSIBILITY Act creates a single Federal accountability system for major environmental harm and climate damage.
It does four main things. First, it creates new Federal offenses for severe ecological destruction, climate concealment, environmental fraud, and obstruction. Second, it creates a broad civil-liability regime so governments and injured people can recover cleanup, restoration, adaptation, health-monitoring, and economic-loss costs. Third, it forces large companies, executives, owners, and certain financial actors to build real environmental controls, disclose risks truthfully, and fund bonds or insurance for major hazards. Fourth, it protects whistleblowers, lets affected people sue, and channels recoveries into a national restoration fund.
The bill is tough, but it is not a blanket no-fault criminal code. Prison applies to knowing, reckless, grossly negligent, fraudulent, or obstructive conduct. Strict liability is used mainly for civil responsibility in ultra-hazardous activities.
Does this criminalize all emissions?
No. The criminal title targets egregious conduct: knowing, reckless, grossly negligent, fraudulent, obstructive, or deliberately concealed behavior tied to major harm or major-scale concealment.
Can corporations still operate lawfully under the Act?
Yes. The bill assumes lawful operation remains possible, but only if firms adopt prevention systems, monitor and report honestly, and internalize major risks instead of shifting them to the public.
Does it reach wealthy individuals?
Yes, through beneficial-owner, control-person, sponsor, and family-office provisions. It does not punish wealth as such; it reaches actual control, decisive financing, and informed facilitation.
Can local governments and Tribes sue?
Yes. Public plaintiffs can recover adaptation, resilience, cleanup, restoration, and public-health costs.
Does the Act wipe out State law?
No. It is a Federal floor, not a ceiling.
Consistency.
Definitions, threshold categories, penalty ladders, whistleblower remedies, and judicial-review pathways are internally aligned. Criminal liability is tied to explicit mental states; civil liability handles strict liability and cumulative harm.
Enforceability.
The bill assigns clear roles to EPA, DOJ, SEC, and other agencies; provides funding, records authority, subpoena tools, emergency powers, and a registry; and phases compliance in by entity size and risk.
Top litigation risks.
Top five assumptions driving costs and outcomes.
One, penalty collections will materially exceed current baseline enforcement. Two, agencies can stand up interoperable data systems within 18 months. Three, courts will accept event-attribution and apportioned-causation models under the evidentiary framework. Four, financial institutions will change behavior when due-diligence and facilitation rules bite. Five, transition assistance will blunt some worker and local-government disruption.
Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007).
West Virginia v. EPA, 597 U.S. 697 (2022).
Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (2024).
42 U.S.C. § 9607 (CERCLA liability).
42 U.S.C. § 7413 (Clean Air Act Federal enforcement).
U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Environmental Crimes Section.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, FY2025 Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Annual Results.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Audit Policy.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Report on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases: Estimates Incorporating Recent Scientific Advances (2023), and White House, Unleashing American Energy (Jan. 20, 2025).
SEC, Climate-Disclosure Rule Adoption (Mar. 6, 2024) and SEC Vote to End Defense of Those Rules (Mar. 27, 2025).
SEC, FY2025 Annual Report to Congress on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program; DOJ, False Claims Act overview.
EU Directive 2024/1203 on the protection of the environment through criminal law; EU Climate Law, Regulation (EU) 2021/1119.
Optional companion materials: a shorter introduced-bill version, a committee-section redline, or a sponsor memorandum.
