Obtain the data you need to make the most informed decisions by accessing our extensive portfolio of information, analytics, and expertise. Sign in to the product or service center of your choice.
The Biden administration has received temporary approval to
quantify the economic impacts of climate change in environment and
energy rulemakings that affect public health, fossil fuel
extraction and farming following a federal appeals court order handed down 17 March.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered a stay of
an injunction issued in February 2021 against the Biden
administration's use of an interim price tag for releasing a metric
ton of GHG emissions, while it considers the merits of the
case.
The three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit said a Louisiana-led
10-state coalition was unable to persuade the panel that the
interim estimates would increase their regulatory burdens.
Further, the panel said the government would likely win on merit
because the plaintiff states' claims lacked standing, a perquisite
for any judicial review.
"The Plaintiff States' claims are based on a generalized
grievance of the use of Interim Estimates in cost-benefit analyses
of regulations and agency action," Circuit Judges Leslie Southwick,
James Graves Jr., and Gregg Costa wrote in a per curiam order.
The claimed injury "does not stem from the Interim Estimates
themselves, it stems from any forthcoming, speculative, and unknown
regulation that may place increased burdens on them and may result
from consideration of [social cost of greenhouse gases]," the
judges wrote.
At issue before the appeals court was the injunction that the
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued
against the Biden administration's use of the interim social cost
of greenhouse gases.
Injunction 'no longer in effect'
The appeals court ruling meant "the injunction is no longer in
effect" and federal agencies could resume using the interim
estimates of $51 per metric ton CO2e to quantify the effects of
climate change until the White House Interagency Working Group
(IWG) comes up with a new figure reflective of current inflationary
conditions, Max Sarinsky, senior attorney with the New York
University School of Law's nonprofit Institute for Policy
Integrity, told Net-Zero Business Daily 17 March.
However, Jonathan Adler, who heads the Coleman P. Burke Center
for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University of
Law, cautioned against reading the appellate decision as affirming
the government's use of the interim estimates.
"I should reiterate that nothing in the Fifth Circuit's opinion
presumes that the IWG social cost of carbon estimates are
reasonable or reliable, nor does it presume that the Biden
Administration's climate policies are the correct ones. It instead
focused on whether the plaintiff states are pressing claims that
federal courts can properly hear," Adler wrote in a 17 March blog.
The IWG restored the
inflationary-adjusted interim estimate in February 2021, while it
continued weighing whether to raise that figure as high as $125/mt
that is reflective of current economic conditions.
The group was established under the Obama administration to
calculate the cost of climate change impacts on farm productivity,
human health, natural disasters, and migration.
The Trump administration disbanded the group in 2017, paring the
figure down to $1/mt under an order seeking to promote fossil fuel
projects and energy independence. President Joe Biden restored the
IWG on the day he assumed office through an executive order on public
health and environment.
Awaiting final social cost of GHGs
Although the final social costs of GHGs carbon were due out in
January, the White House IWG has not yet released them.
The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which has
criticized the Biden administration for not being more aggressive
in tackling the climate crisis, noted that the appeals court
"allowed the government to continue its usual consideration of
climate damage costs."
"When it comes to the climate, Biden can't continue business as
usual," Kassie Siegel, director of CBD Climate Law Institute, said
in a 16 March statement. "He has to meet this international crisis
with bold executive action that speeds the transition to renewable
energy and away from dangerous fossil fuels."
Posted 17 March 2022 by Amena Saiyid, Senior Climate and Energy Research Analyst
This article was published by S&P Global Commodity Insights and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.
