Trump-Appointed Judge Just Dealt a Blow to Biden’s Climate Efforts

The order blocks federal agencies from basing decisions on the global “social cost of carbon.”

Robert Nickelsberg/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

When a fossil-fuel power plant releases a ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, how much does that increase the cost of property damage from rising seas—or hurricanes, or wildfires? What’s the price tag on the loss of crops and worsening human health outcomes caused by that ton of greenhouse gas?

According to the scientists in President Joe Biden’s administration, the answer is $51—at least for now. This number, known as the “social cost of carbon,” puts a dollar amount on the harm done by climate pollution. It’s a vital figure for all kinds of federal policymaking—from vehicle milage standards to pipeline approvals to oil and gas drilling—and also a deeply controversial one, given the huge range of factors that go into it. As former Mother Jones climate reporter Rebecca Leber wrote last year: 

Settling on that one number is a minefield of disagreement, because it hinges on estimating generations of damages from climate change as well as the wealth of future generations. While science supports a high social cost of carbon to hasten the transition away from fossil fuels, the politics are much messier and fraught. It’s been a hotly contested issue since the Obama administration, which settled on $51 per metric ton finalized in 2016. The Obama administration used estimates of the social cost of carbon to help justify EPA rules directly targeting climate change, like reducing carbon emissions from cars and trucks, and indirectly, such as regulating mercury from power plants. An even higher figure would help to justify more aggressive action.

Amid all this messiness, former President Donald Trump lowered the estimate to between $1 and $7, allowing him to slash climate regulations, Leber reported. (By his administration’s reasoning, climate change impact outside the US shouldn’t factor in to the figure.) Biden, in turn, restored the social cost to an interim figure of $51 based on global climate change impacts, and revived a working group to update it.

But in this, as in so many other arenas, one of Trump’s federal court appointees has picked up the ball and is running with it. On Friday, James Cain, a federal judge with the Western District of Louisiana, issued a preliminary injunction to stop the government from using the Biden administration’s higher estimate. Cain sided with a group of Republican attorneys general who sued the administration last year, arguing that it was illegal to restore the higher estimate, and that doing so would drive up energy costs while decreasing state revenues from energy production, according to the Guardian.

The Hill reports that Cain’s order blocks federal agencies—including the EPA, the Transportation Department, and the Interior Department—from using the working group’s temporary $51 figure, in part because it accounts for global damage. This metric “directly causes harm” when used to evaluate the oil and gas lease sales some states depend on for revenue, Cain reasoned. 

Cain’s ruling is a blow to Biden administration’s efforts to bring US climate policy more in line with that of the rest of the world, the Guardian writes. Meanwhile, the working group to update the social cost of carbon is running behind—the panel was expected to issue its findings a month ago.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate