What if a project owner asks you about carbon reporting or the embodied carbon of materials? Preparing for these questions can take months or even longer—and can involve compliance, sustainability and even finance team members. Get a head start at AGC’s Construction Safety Health and Environmental Conference on July 25-27, 2023 in Nashville, Tenn. Learn about regulatory initiatives related to climate change policies, carbon reporting practices, the business case, documenting of emissions in materials, and related tools.

AGC submitted its first set of comments on a Biden administration guidance implementing a new executive order that changes the process of developing regulations (Executive Order 14094 on Modernizing Regulatory Review). The new policy would limit the business community’s access to the administration during the inter-agency review process, while encouraging feedback from groups that ordinarily would not engage in the regulatory process. The policy effectively closes the door on the very entities that stand to bear the compliance cost of a proposed regulation. The executive order also raises the threshold of a significant regulatory action, meaning fewer regulations would be required to undergo review. AGC encourages the administration to abandon the executive order.

On May 31, the House of Representatives passed the AGC of America-backed debt limit agreement legislation entitled the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA). The U.S. Senate is expected to pass it shortly and President Biden to sign it into law thereafter.

Take the Sustainable Practices Survey to Help Inform the New Effort, Log In to August 16 Town Hall for a Carbon Reporting Overview

Will Change Federal Permitting for Construction Projects

A coalition of environmental advocacy groups, including Beyond Plastics, Environmental Health Sciences, and the Plastic Pollution Coalition, released a report calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide guidance on a safe alternative to PVC for replacing lead water service lines. The coalition claims that PVC is hazardous to human health and warns that communities replacing their lead service lines with PVC would be “leaping from the frying pan into the fire.” The report, however, lacks new research to justify such regulatory action, as the groups admit “research on this topic is thin.”

On May 10, the White House released new permitting priorities to advance its climate change policy goals. The White House touched on a few reforms that AGC has previously supported, such as reducing the length of federal decision documents, reasonable decision time frames for projects, and improving federal coordination and information sharing. However, the priorities are limited to largely transmission and renewable energy projects as well as clean energy infrastructure.