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by Alex Guillen (Politico)  -The decision means the White House can move forward with its plans to overhaul and likely significantly increase the number known as the social cost of carbon. -The Supreme Court’s refusal to get involved in the Louisiana suit likely is a bad sign for a similar but separate legal action led by Missouri and other states.

The Supreme Court will not torpedo the Biden administration’s estimate of the social impacts of climate change, rejecting on Thursday a request from Louisiana and other Republican-controlled states to block agencies from using the metric in rulemakings and other decisions.

The decision means the White House can move forward with its plans to overhaul and likely significantly increase the number known as the social cost of carbon — a dollar value assigned to future damages from climate change. The current value is $51 for each ton of greenhouse gases spewed into the atmosphere, but experts believe it should be raised to as much as four times that amount.

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The litigation continues to play out before the 5th Circuit. But that court’s strongly worded temporary stay of Cain’s ( Judge James Cain of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana) injunction, along with the lack of interest from the en banc court or Supreme Court, doesn’t bode well for Louisiana’s case.

The White House’s interagency working group is expected to propose a broader update of the social cost metric in the coming months, though an exact timeline is unclear. Experts argue advancements in both climate and economic forecasting justify raising the figure to as high as $200 or more.

Context: The Supreme Court’s refusal to get involved in the Louisiana suit likely is a bad sign for a similar but separate legal action led by Missouri and other states. In Missouri’s case, a district court judge tossed the lawsuit last year after finding the states lacked standing, much like the 5th Circuit concluded about Louisiana.

The Missouri lawsuit is on appeal before the 8th Circuit, where oral arguments are scheduled for June 16. The 8th Circuit is not bound by the 5th Circuit’s ruling but likely will take notice of the Supreme Court’s decision not to reverse it.    READ MORE

Federal agencies can use social cost of carbon — for now (E&E News)

Supreme Court rejects red states’ bid to block Biden accounting metric (The Hill)

SOCIAL COST OF CARBON CHARGES AHEAD: (Politico’s Morning Energy)

Excerpt from Politico’s Morning Energy: That doesn’t mean the SCC is free of legal challenges. The 5th Circuit is still hearing the matter, though it hasn’t signaled much sympathy to the GOP cause. Several Republican lawmakers led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito have also asked repeatedly for more insight into how the administration is formulating its new SCC, saying the process has so far been opaque (Capito’s office told ME Thursday they haven’t gotten a response yet). POLITICO’s Alex Guillén has more.  READ MORE