Biden Is Hiking the Cost of Carbon. It Will Change How the U.S. Tackles Global Warming.

by Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis (Washington Post) President Biden on Friday dramatically altered the way the U.S. government calculates the real-world cost of climate change, a move that could reshape a range of consequential decisions, from whether to allow new coal leasing on federal land to what sort of steel is used in taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects.

The administration plans to boost the figure it will use to assess the damage that greenhouse gas pollution inflicts on society to $51 per ton of carbon dioxide — a rate more than seven times higher than that used by Donald Trump’s administration. But the number, known as the “social cost of carbon,” could reach as high as $125 per ton once the administration conducts a more thorough analysis.

The ultimate figure will be incorporated into decisions across the federal government, including what sort of purchases it makes, the kind of pollution controls it imposes on industry and which highways and pipelines are permitted in the years to come. Just as important, the move sends a powerful signal to the private sector and to ordinary Americans that the choices the country makes now could lock in disastrous consequences on both current and future generations — or help to avert the worst impacts.

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There is mounting evidence that climate change impacts are already costing the United States and other countries billions of dollars each year, but policymakers are not fully accounting for these damages when they approve projects or make purchases that will cause more planet-warming pollution.

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Herve Hamon directs planning and zoning for Dorchester County, Md., which recently published a plan saying sea-level rise “will lead to the failure of conventional septic systems, contaminated drinking water supplies, loss of productive agricultural land and damage to seafood processing infrastructure." By 2050, the plan projects, the cost of flood damage will rise from $11 million to $66 million, and “790 buildings are expected to be constantly wet.”

Hamon and his colleagues are struggling to figure out how to maintain road infrastructure to waterfront homes given the expanding water on the county’s south side, even as more people want to build there. If national policymakers can curb greenhouse gas emissions by putting a price on their impact, he said in an interview, it could reduce the county’s sea-level rise threat.

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But many industry groups remain nervous about putting a higher price tag on carbon emissions, and are warning the administration it needs to listen to them before settling on a final figure for doing so.

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The federal government first started incorporating the cost of climate impacts into its decision-making under President George W. Bush, after a federal court invalidated its mileage standards on the grounds that they did not address the damages associated with carbon dioxide. President Obama made the issue a priority, establishing an interagency working group that set the number at $37 per ton by the end of his presidency. READ MORE

CLIMATE CALCULATIONS: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Biden Administration to Return to Obama Era CO2 Cost Calculations (Our Daily Planet)

A Return to Science: Evidence-Based Estimates of the Benefits of Reducing Climate Pollution (White House)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: OMB ASKS FOR COMMENT ON INTERIM SCC: The Office of Management and Budget asked for public comment last week on its interim social cost of carbon and other greenhouse gases, which are used by federal agencies in rulemakings and other policy matters. The interim figures were rolled out in February and hewed closely to Obama-era figures adjusted for inflation. (h/t InsideEPA, which spotted OMB’s short notice in the Federal Register.)

Laissez les bons SCC rouler: OMB’s notice comes not long after Louisiana and other Republican-controlled states asked a judge to block agencies from using the interim values, saying they violated notice-and-comment regulatory requirements. OMB's notice asks for ideas about how to update the social cost of carbon calculations to reflect scientific and economic advancements. A final update is expected in January 2022, and climate activists hope it will significantly increase the level, making regulation easier. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: WHATCHA UP TO IN THERE? Several Senate Republicans are pushing for more transparency on how the Biden White House is calculating the social cost of greenhouse gases. The lawmakers, who all serve as ranking members of committees that oversee agencies involved in crafting the new figures, wrote to the White House SC-GHG working group Thursday requesting recommendations the group is required to deliver Biden under a Jan. 20 executive order. The recommendations go into the “areas of decision-making, budgeting, and procurement by the Federal Government” where the social cost of greenhouse gases may be used. They were due to Biden at the beginning of September and the GOP legislators say that deadline has lapsed with no word to Congress or the American public about the status of the recommendations.

“Given the potential wide-reaching application of the SC-GHG in decision-making, budgeting, and procurement, it is critically important for the Working Group to be transparent and accountable in its actions,” the lawmakers write. The White House didn’t respond to ME’s email for comment.