EPA Proposes Quadrupling The Carbon Cost To $190/Tonne

EPA floats sharply increased social cost of carbon

Niina H. Farah and Lesley Clark, November 21, 2022 (EandE News)

“EPA has proposed a new estimate for the social cost of carbon emissions, nearly quadrupling an interim figure that has already drawn legal challenges from a host of Republican-led states…The metric puts a price tag on the damages created by each metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions…from power plants and automobiles to the oil and gas sector…The Biden administration has been using the Interagency Working Group’s interim value of $51 per metric ton of CO2. But earlier this month, EPA quietly proposed increasing that number to $190…

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The administration’s use of the IWG’s interim social cost of greenhouse gases has been challenged in parallel lawsuits led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, both Republicans… [It was] first developed by the Obama administration, adjusted for inflation. Environmental groups and others eager for more stringent climate action have pressed the administration to increase that value…[which] is far more than the Trump administration, which used a value of just $1 per metric ton…

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…[Landry and Schmitt argued] Biden lacked the authority to raise the key climate metric under the Constitution…[The Biden administration has scored] victories in court defending the current interim metric of $51 per metric ton… [EPA’s new proposal estimates the social cost of carbon as $120, $190 or $340 per metric ton of CO2, using discount rates of 2.5 percent, 2.0 percent and 1.5 percent. The higher rate means a lower dollar value is assigned to future impacts; a lower rate assigns more value to those future harms. It] will now have to undergo an independent peer-review process…” click here for more

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