Upon taking office in January, President Biden convened a task force to assess the social cost of greenhouse gases, as part of his comprehensive climate change agenda. At the end of February, the task force published an interim report estimating the cost of carbon at approximately $52 per ton. In a recent Law360 article, Rachel Jacobson, Shannon Morrissey and Chaz Kelsh state that the task force report is significant because it suggests that the Biden administration will use that social cost of carbon, or SCC, figure in the cost-benefit analysis supporting what is expected to be a robust regulatory regime.
The piece examines the basics of cost-benefit analysis in Federal regulations, the cost-benefit analysis in the environmental context, the SCC in regulatory decision making and the social cost of carbon under the Biden Administration.
