Advanced BioFuels USA

by Jean Chemnick (E&E Climatewire) EPA is about to finalize a sky-high value for carbon that could be used whenever the federal government leases land to oil drillers or buys new mail trucks.

But its effect on actual policymaking may be limited.

The agency’s stratospheric social cost of carbon — at $190 a ton — could fail to strengthen regulations, cut fossil fuel production on federal lands or make buying decisions friendlier to the climate, according to experts — at least without further legal and regulatory changes.

…

Draft social cost of greenhouse gas metrics for carbon, methane and nitrogen oxides are now under review by a panel of outside experts. The proposed figures are sharply higher than those now being used by the Biden administration — about $51 a ton for carbon. EPA’s draft metric aims to reflect a decade of research on the costs of greenhouse gases on society. The last science-based update was in 2013.

It’s unclear when the agency will release its final value. When it does, the whopping metric could be used across the federal government, including in upcoming EPA rules, Energy Department efficiency mandates, Department of Transportation fuel efficiency rules and environmental reviews for major projects.

Recent climate guidance demands that agencies monetize the climate consequences of projects using the “best available” social cost of greenhouse gases (Climatewire, Jan. 10).

But it might fail to live up to expectations — of supporters and critics alike. The idea that the metric could provide an internal carbon tax that drives all aspects of federal decisionmaking may never materialize.

…

The social cost of carbon has appeared in more than 100 federal actions under four administrations since 2008, when a federal court told former President George W. Bush’s Transportation Department to revise a fuel economy standard that gave short shrift to the climate. Not only has the carbon metric not come to dominate federal policy, but it has rarely — if ever — changed the balance of costs and benefits in any rulemaking.

A 2016 analysis by researchers at the Electric Power Research Institute found that the social cost of carbon was a nonfactor throughout the Obama administration. 

…

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — which is within the Office of Management and Budget — is expected to soon update a 20-year-old guidance for how agencies conduct cost-benefit analyses, or CBAs. Many laws — including sections of the Clean Air Act — require agencies to weigh costs and benefits when setting rules and standards. But those laws don’t mandate that an agency to defer to the CBA by always choosing the alternative with the greatest monetized benefits. READ MORE

Could this number sway Biden’s climate decisions? (Politico’s Power Switch)