Closer Look at ‘Social Cost of Carbon’

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According to a new report from The Hill, the Obama Administration is now publishing key data that helps assess the ‘social cost of carbon.’ The figures are key to the White House’s assertions about the costs and benefits of action to combat climate change.

Read the Technical Support Document Released by the White House

“Rigorous evaluation of costs and benefits is a core tenet of the rulemaking process,” states the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “It is particularly important in the area of climate change.”

The Obama Administration made waves this past May when it increased its social cost or carbon from roughly $21 per metric ton to $35. By doing so, the administration’s proposed actions on climate change appear more attractive from a cost-benefit standpoint. But are the books being cooked?

“With the administration’s mercury rule (Utility MACT), we eventually learned that only a tiny percentage of the benefits calculated actually came from mercury reductions,” explains PACE Executive Director Lance Brown. “Now, with the social cost of carbon, we are seeing the administration continue to massage the numbers to improve the optics of its costly climate change proposals.”

The White House’s social cost of carbon document will be published officially today, November 26th, allowing sixty days for public comment.

“This data is being used to calculate the costs and benefits of one of the most important sets of policies this nation has ever contemplated. Billions of dollars in costs, tens of thousands of jobs, and the very price of energy depends on those figures,” says Brown. “For the federal government to hold a public comment during the holiday season speaks volumes about how much they really value public feedback as part of this process.”