Appeals Court Backs Obama’s Carbon Accounting

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an industry attempt to overturn Obama administration math assumptions regarding the “social cost” of carbon emissions for use in cost-benefit analyses. The case concerned energy standards for a narrow slice of manufacturing – commercial refrigerators – but the precedent is widely significant, according to The Hill, because it confirmed a center piece of the Obama administration energy policy: that for purposes of cost-benefit analysis used the formulate regulations, the cost of a metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere can be pegged at $36. The court rebuffed an industry claim that the methodology used by the Department of Energy to generate that figure was “irredeemably flawed.”