Charles Sauer’s latest in RealClearPolicy warns that international organizations are quietly becoming de facto regulators — imposing costly environmental mandates without congressional approval. He argues that ISO’s push toward Scope 3 emissions tracking could raise prices, discourage investment, and hand advantages to foreign competitors like China.
Outsourcing Emissions Policy Is Bad for Business
American businesses and consumers are increasingly paying the price for policymakers outsourcing regulation to international organizations. In his new piece for RealClearPolicy, Charles Sauer explains how the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is moving to align with the Greenhouse Gas protocol’s expansive “Scope 3” emissions framework — a system that would require businesses to track emissions across their entire supply chain.
Sauer argues these standards may be labeled “voluntary,” but they often become embedded in federal regulations, procurement rules, and shareholder-driven mandates without meaningful public debate. The result, he warns, would be higher compliance costs, reduced investment in innovation, and increased prices for consumers.
“Voluntary” international standards rarely stay voluntary for long.
The article also highlights how Scope 3 reporting could disproportionately hurt American energy producers and manufacturers while benefiting foreign competitors operating under looser environmental expectations. Sauer notes that the compliance burden would especially punish growing and productive businesses, even when they become more efficient over time.
Regulators who ignore market realities don’t solve problems; they manufacture new ones.
Sauer concludes by calling on Congress and American businesses to resist turning international standards bodies into shadow regulators and instead keep policymaking accountable to elected officials and market realities.
