White House Further Looks to Federal Procurement Power to Address Climate Change

Crowell & Moring – On December 8, 2021, President Biden signed an “Executive Order on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability,” outlining a host of federal sustainability and climate change-related procurement initiatives “to achieve a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050.”  Chief among these initiatives are policies to accomplish “net-zero emissions from Federal procurement, including a Buy Clean policy to promote use of construction materials with lower embodied emissions;” net-zero emissions from the federal building portfolio by 2045; 100 percent zero-emission vehicle acquisitions by 2035; and the establishment of the Buy Clean Task Force.  This executive order marks this administration’s latest step in its march toward embedding the pursuit of climate driven policy objectives into the federal procurement regime.