U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Block Biden’s “Social Cost of Carbon”

In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see What Biden’s First Two Days on the Job Mean for the O&G Industry). The social cost of carbon dioxide emissions is a metric that regulators use to assess the monetary impact of emissions increases. On his very first day in office, Biden restored the so-called climate cost estimate to $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions after the Trump administration had reduced the figure to $7 or less per ton. In February a federal judge overturned Biden’s order (see Fed Judge Overturns Biden Order to Use Global CO2 Cost Estimates), but in March a panel of judges overturned that judge and reinstated Biden’s crazy-high carbon cost (see 5th Circuit Restores Biden Order to Use Global CO2 Cost Estimates). The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Supremes weren't so Supreme this time, saying they won't block Biden's obscenely high cost of carbon number.

---

To view this content, log into your member account. (Not a member? Join Today!)