United States:
Biden Administration Issues Executive Order On Sustainable Procurement
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On December 8, 2021, the Biden Administration issued
an executive order seeking to
leverage United States procurement power to promote investment in
clean energy. The order sets out the following five goals:
“100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity (CFE) by 2030,
at least half of which will be locally supplied clean energy to
meet 24/7 demand; 100 percent zero-emission vehicle (ZEV)
acquisitions by 2035, including 100 percent zero-emission
light-duty vehicle acquisitions by 2027; [n]et-zero emissions from
federal procurement no later than 2050, including a Buy Clean
policy to promote use of construction materials with lower embodied
emissions; [a] net-zero emissions building portfolio by 2045,
including a 50 percent emissions reduction by 2032; and [n]et-zero
emissions from overall federal operations by 2050, including a 65
percent emissions reduction by 2030.”
Additionally, the executive order directs the federal government
to use its procurement and operations ability with the following
principles in mind: “[a]chieving climate resilient
infrastructure and operations; [b]uilding a climate- and
sustainability-focused workforce; [a]dvancing environmental justice
and equity; “[p]rioritizing the purchase of sustainable
products, such as a products without added per- or polyfluoroalkyl
substances (PFAS); and [a]ccelerating progress through domestic and
international partnerships.”
The executive order’s goal of seeking to purchase products
without added PFAS appears to follow a December 2,
2021, letter that 62 House Democrats
sent to the Council on Environmental Quality requesting that the
federal government include a restriction on the use of PFAS in the
December 8, 2021, executive order.
In the letter, the signees note that “[a] federal
procurement mandate to steer purchasing toward PFAS-free products
would help prevent PFAS from entering the environment” and
that an executive order “would be a practical and immediate
action to start turning the tide of products containing
intentionally-added PFAS in the marketplace.” The letter also
requests that a federal policy be implemented that “[s]ets a
deadline for [Environmental Protection Agency] to publish
environmentally preferable purchasing recommendations addressing
PFAS, including criteria, specifications, and standards to support
procurement of safer alternatives.”
The executive order’s goal of purchasing products without
added PFAS appears to broaden the current prohibitions on the
Department of Defense’s PFAS use. Currently, the fiscal year
2021 national defense authorization act includes restrictions only
on the more common per- fluorinated chemicals, PFOA and PFOS. In
effect, the PFAS restriction appears to have provided House
Democrats with another avenue in limiting the federal
government’s use of PFAS in procured products.
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