PCAP - Presidential Climate Action Project

The CCSP is an executive branch agency, but aspects of the CCSP’s functions involveimplementing research under the United States Global Research Act of 1990. (See footnotes 3and 4.). The CCSP, inasmuch as it is the implementing agency for the CCRI, is completelyunder presidential control. See Proposal D-1 for details. The President’s control over thestatutory functions of the CCSP is more limited, although the USGCRA grants considerablediscretionary authority to the President, as noted above.The NSF, as noted above, is an independent agency, although its officials are appointed by thePresident subject to Senate confirmation. The President also has authority to direct the NSF tosupport research in the public interest.Executive Orders. Forty five executive orders mention the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency—none are directly on point concerning the PCAP recommendation. There appear to beno executive orders relating directly to either the CCSP or the CCRI. Sixty-six executive ordersmention the National Science Foundation. One of these orders, dating from 1954,“Administration of Scientific Research by Agencies of the Federal Government,” is relevant; it issummarized in Proposal D-1. The action in that executive order is consistent with the authoritycurrently given to the President by section 1862 to direct studies in the public interest, although itshould be noted that the Order is so dated that it can serve only as an example of the type ofaction authorized, as there appears to have been no contemporaneous equivalent to the currentsection 1862. The NSF is frequently directed to coordinate with other agencies, for example todevelop a national system of Marine Protected Areas 420 and to participate in the InteragencyCouncil on Biobased Products and Bioenergy. 421 These executive orders seem to be generallyconsistent with the President’s authority to direct NSF to support research efforts in the publicinterest.Conclusion. The PCAP recommendation is within the President’s authority, because the CCSPis an executive agency created by the President and clearly under presidential authority.Alternatively, the President may order CCSP to conduct the projection of liability pursuant to theUSGCRA, because implementation of USGCRA research is explicitly delegated by Congress tothe President, and because the objectives of the USGCRA include producing research onmitigating and adapting to climate change. 422 The President also has clear and explicit statutoryauthority to direct the National Science Foundation to support studies in the public interest, 423making the NSF a good choice for sponsoring the liability projection. The President is within hisauthority to direct FEMA to take steps to mitigate budget impacts on the FFIP. FEMA isauthorized by statute to “establish and carry out” the program, the objective of which is to create“reasonable method of sharing risk of flood losses” (see footnotes 5 and 6). Further, FEMA is420 Exec. Order No. 13,158, 65 Fed. Reg. 34909 (May 26, 2000). Marine Protected Areas.421 Exec. Order No. 13,134, 64 Fed. Reg. 44639 (August 12, 1999). Developing and Promoting Biobased Productsand Bioenergy.422 See 15 U.S.C. § 2933 (“The President shall establish an interagency United States Global Change ResearchProgram to improve understanding of global change. The Program shall be implemented by the Plan developedunder section 2934 of this title”), § 2934(d) (“The Plan shall provide recommendations for collaboration within theFederal Government and among nations to . . . combine and interpret data from various sources to produceinformation readily usable by policymakers attempting to formulate effective strategies for preventing, mitigating,and adapting to the effects of global change”).423 42 U.S.C. § 1862(c).CEES 107 | P age