by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing in the Washington Times
Do fossil fuels and their emissions create a net cost to society?
To advance its climate agenda, the Biden administration is seeking public comment on an effort to memory hole the realities of fossil fuels and drive punitive regulations by establishing a measure called the “social cost of carbon.”
The calculation of the social cost of carbon (SCC) was first ordered by a federal appeals court in 2008. Environmental activist groups and several blue states had sued the Bush administration for failing to consider any benefits of reducing CO2 emissions in setting more stringent fuel economy standards.
The Obama administration eagerly embraced the court order. In 2010, it set the SCC value at $31 per ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted. This meant that every ton of emissions cost society $31 in unspecified and perhaps imaginary damages.
An overly-cautious Trump administration (think about that phrase) knocked the social cost of carbon figure down to between $1 and $6 per ton of CO2. Now the Biden EPA is looking to jack back up the social cost of carbon to economically justify climate regulations.
