Tag Archives: SCC

Each Federal Agency Should Use Its Judgment in Determining the Social Cost of Carbon — How’s That Going to Work Out?

Late last month, the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases quietly released a three-paragraph memo on how agencies should determine the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions.  I hesitate to call it “guidance.”  Here’s the operative language:

As agencies consider applying the SC-GHG in various contexts, agencies should use their professional judgment to determine which estimates of the SC-GHG reflect the best available evidence,… More

The Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases Is Increasing — But Is Uncertainty Over the Measurement of Climate Impacts Artificially Depressing the Number?

Yesterday, Climatewire (subscription required) released a peer review letter on EPA’s Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (SC-GHG), which got a fair bit of press last year, because EPA’s metric was $190/ton, even though the Biden administration was using the $51/ton figure originally developed by the Obama administration.  The peer reviewers’ views can be distilled down to two major points:social cost of greenhouse gases

  1. It’s a really solid piece of work that provide a solid technical foundation for the SC-GHG.…
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Red States Still Have Nothing to Complain About Regarding the Social Cost of Carbon

Today, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed for lack of standing claims by a number of states challenging the Biden Administration’s Interim Estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon.  The Court had telegraphed this outcome last spring when it vacated a District Court injunction against use of the Interim Estimates, noting that:

The Government Defendants are likely to succeed on the merits because the Plaintiff States lack standing.… More

Integrated Assessment Models of the Social Cost of Carbon: False Precision Is More False Than Precise

For those who both believe in the reality of climate change and dream of a day when Congress might get past gridlock and address the issue, the critical question is how to price carbon emissions to reflect the external costs that the use of carbon imposes on society:  the “social cost of carbon”, or SCC.  Recently, attention has focused on efforts to develop “Integrated Assessment Models.”  The point of the IAMs is to integrate the scientific analysis of the changing climate with the economic costs that would result from varying degrees of climate change.… More