The so-called social cost of carbon is triggering a debate in California over whether businesses should be paying more for releasing greenhouse gas emissions.
The flare-up over how much the state’s cap-and-trade program charges for each ton of climate pollution — currently around $30 — comes five weeks after President Donald Trump abolished an EPA benchmark that put the climate damage from a ton of carbon emissions at $190.
The price difference between the state program and the federal estimate has been highlighted to defend the costs that California’s program puts on consumers. It has also been used by environmental justice advocates to argue that the state should charge companies more for each ton of pollution they release into the atmosphere.
The social cost of carbon is a metric for estimating the societal cost of releasing 1 ton of carbon dioxide. It’s used to help federal regulators determine the financial benefits of reducing emissions on a broad scale through climate rules. The bigger the metric is, the greater a rule’s benefit would be, helping to justify the costs imposed on polluting companies.
