• Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Climate Change Dispatch
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Climate Change Dispatch
No Result
View All Result

Former Obama Adviser Resurrects The Debate Over The ‘Social Cost Of Carbon’ Metric

by Michael Bastasch
August 18, 2017, 2:10 PM
in News and Opinion
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
16
Michael Greenstone

A group of economists and lawyers are trying to resurrect a contentious climate policy battle, by criticizing the Trump administration’s abandoning of the “social cost of carbon” (SCC) estimate used by the Obama administration.

They argued the SCC is still the “best estimate” for figuring out the future cost of global warming. The group published a letter in the journal Science co-authored by Michael Greenstone, the chief economist of former President Barack Obama’s economic advisers council.

The “social cost of greenhouse gases should be regularly updated, especially to reflect the latest evidence about damage functions,” reads the letter co-authored by Greenstone. He also helped create the federal working group that developed the SCC.

The authors have “confidence that it is still the best estimate of the social cost of greenhouse gases.” The other authors included members of the Institute for Policy Integrity, a liberal think tank.

President Donald Trump disbanded the inter-agency working group behind the SCC earlier this year, sparking outrage from environmentalists and former Obama administration officials.

The White House had serious questions about two key aspects of the SCC, but conservative economists have been voicing objections to the metric for years.

David Kreutzer, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, co-authored a 2016 study that found the SCC was much smaller than the Obama administration claimed and depended highly on the discount rate and models used.

In fact, the SCC is negative when based on observed temperature increases rather than climate models, according to Kreutzer’s study.

Likewise, Robert Murphy, an economist with the free market Institute for Energy Research, argued in 2013 the SCC “is a very malleable concept that can be inflated or deflated by turning certain wheels.”

And why not?

Carbon dioxide fuels the modern world. Human prosperity during the 20th Century was largely propelled by the internal combustion engine and other such innovations, almost all using CO2-emitting fossil fuels.

A May study by University of Sussex economist Richard Tol found that while there is a social cost to burning CO2, the private benefit of doing so was “much higher.” On average, the private benefit of CO2 was $411 per ton — more than eight times larger than the Obama administration’s estimate.

Greenstone and his co-authors went after two specific objections to the SCC cited by the Trump administration — the discount rate and use of global benefits.

Greenstone and company argued the Obama administration was correct in using a 2.5 to 5 percent discount rate, instead of a higher one. They say a higher discount rate would make future damages from global warming seem less.

“National Academies of Sciences and the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers strongly support a 3% or lower discount rate for intergenerational effects,” they wrote.

“A 7% rate based on private capital returns is considered inappropriate because the risk profiles of climate effects differ from private investments,” Greenstone and his co-authors wrote in their letter.

Greenstone also took on the criticism that the SCC estimated global benefits to domestic regulations. Not only did the authors argue taking international damages into account was appropriate, they admitted “current models cannot accurately estimate a domestic-only share of the social cost of greenhouse gases.””

So, is there any chance the Trump administration will re-adopt the SCC? Administration officials are reportedly “working on something coming in the not-too-distant future,” according to an official.

But don’t expect it to be a guidepost for a policy like in the Obama administration.

Some states are using the SCC in energy policy decisions, which make adopting green policies more economically viable on paper.

Both Colorado and New York require utilities to consider the SCC when planning electricity generation. New York went further and used the metric to set subsidy rates for ailing nuclear power plants.

Read more at Daily Caller

  • Truth
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Gettr
  • Threads
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Mastodon
  • Buffer
  • Telegram
  • Email
  • Copy Link
  • Share Using More Networks…

Popular Posts

Electric Vehicles (EVs)

The ‘Green’ Scam Of The Century: How ‘Renewables’ Increase Fossil Fuel Demands

Oct 23, 2024
News and Opinion

Antarctica Is Colder, Icier Today Than At Any Time In 5,000 Years

Apr 15, 2024
Energy

30-Plus Signs That The Climate Scam Is Collapsing

Apr 09, 2025

Comments 16

  1. David Lewis says:
    8 years ago

    It doesn’t matter what the trees do. A 40% increase in carbon dioxide is a non-issue. There is very poor correlation between carbon dioxide and the earth’s temperature. The most compelling is that 40% of the warming blamed on man occurred between 1910 and 1941 when the carbon dioxide levels were relatively low and raising very slowly.

    Another very compelling study that was just released by a German group and unlike the IPCC models, correlates to real word data as far back as the Roman warming period. The correlation of the model to data is 0.84, which is quite high. In the model carbon dioxide only has a minor effect. In addition, we can expect climate cooling for the next 50 years.

    https://climatechangedispatch.com/new-study-by-german-physicists-concludes-we-can-expect-climate-cooling-for-next-50-years/

    I’m only talking about carbon dioxide. The non-carbon dioxide pollution that they have in China is a problem.

  2. Spurwing Plover says:
    8 years ago

    What ever happened to Global Cooling at the New Ice Age which tat very same liberal rag TIME was blabbering off about back in the 1970’s as much as they were lying about Global Warming in the 1990’s I mean TIME,ROLLING STONE and the now defunked NEWSWEEK lied to their readers and they need to be taken to task for this all

  3. David Lewis says:
    8 years ago

    Let’s not lose focus on the reason the Social Cost of Carbon was invented. The cost of following the “solution” that the climate change movement insists we do is extreme. One way to justify the costs is to come up with a phony cost to the emissions of carbon dioxide. Both the problem and the justification of the solution are based on fraudulent calculations.

  4. Spurwing Plover says:
    8 years ago

    Time to maroon the enviroemntal wackos on some far distant planet and let them fend for themselves lets see how long they would last on a planet who dont care for granola bar munchers and tree huggers

    • Sonnyhill says:
      8 years ago

      Rainman, why waste a Mars mission on “enviro -whackos” ? Fire them at the Sun.

  5. Spurwing Plover says:
    8 years ago

    CO2 is not a polutant its a plant food plants need it to survive and reproduce if it was to be eliminated becuase of Junk Science and lies like they did with DDT then the planet would die becuase the plant would die off first then he herbavors the the carnivors and humans

    • Sonnyhill says:
      8 years ago

      Spurthing, nobody is going to eliminate CO2.
      99% of it is produced by nature.

      • JayPeeIdiot says:
        8 years ago

        Man-made CO2 has fundamentally changed the atmospheric mixture. There has been a 40% increase of CO2 because of man since 1880.

        • Sonnyhill says:
          8 years ago

          Right, Drew. That’s why we’re all gasping for oxygen like fish out of water.

          • JayPeeIdiot says:
            8 years ago

            Depends on how bad the coal pollution is where you live. Beijing now sells cans of air – seriously. HOWEVER, the point was that the atmosphere now has 40% more energy-trapping CO2 than 140 years ago and far less carbon sinks (old growth forests) thanks to man.

          • Sonnyhill says:
            8 years ago

            Old growth forests are better at absorbing CO2? Bull sh!t, idiot.

          • JayPeeIdiot says:
            8 years ago

            Educate yourself moron -https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7210/full/nature07276.html

          • Sonnyhill says:
            8 years ago

            You’re referring to an article from 2008. A study was published in Nature February 11, 2016. Lead author of the study, Lourens Poorter, found that secondary growth forests have up to 11 times the carbon uptake of old growth forests. 1500 forest plots were used in the study.

  6. 4TimesAYear says:
    8 years ago

    Total fabrication. Hokum then,Hokum now.

    • Sonnyhill says:
      8 years ago

      The social cost versus the private benefit. WOW! I’d like to see the Venn diagram for that.
      Calculate this one: I burn some diesel fuel growing organic potatoes for personal profit. A trucker burns some diesel fuel hauling those spuds to the city, again for personal profit. City denizens buy those organic beauties, drive ’em home, cook ’em and eat ’em. Utility company makes a profit selling them the energy for the stove.
      Seems to me it’s all personal benefit, every step of the way. Who suffers a ” social cost”?

  7. Al Shelton says:
    8 years ago

    The first thing this ignoramus must realize is that CO2 does NOT cause global warming, hence climate change.
    All his SCC calculation are meaningless.

Stay Connected On Social Media

gab-logo

Donate Today

Beating back the alarmist narrative takes time and money. Please donate today to help!

Recent Posts

  • COP30 Amazon17 Republican AGs Urge Trump Admin To Skip COP30 Over Green Energy Policies
    Oct 24, 2025
    The attorneys general say attending COP30 would back costly, unreliable wind and solar and risk U.S. energy security. […]
  • severe storm over cityClimate Expert Reveals Latest Scandal Tied To Billion-Dollar Disasters
    Oct 24, 2025
    Climate Central takes over the Billion-Dollar Disasters tabulation, sparking fresh controversy over its methods and motives. […]
  • ocean sun cloudsNew Study Finds 75% Of Rising Ocean Heat Likely Natural, CO2 Not A Factor
    Oct 24, 2025
    Study shows ocean warming driven mostly by natural cycles, not greenhouse gas emissions, challenging mainstream global warming narratives. […]
  • LNG terminal in germanyU.S. And Qatar Push Back On EU’s Climate Mandates That Threaten LNG Exports
    Oct 24, 2025
    U.S. and Qatari officials warn that the EU’s latest climate regulations under CSDDD could endanger Europe’s access to affordable natural gas. […]
  • marines trainingCrazy Hill Op-Ed Demands Generals Respond To Climate Change ‘National Security’ Threat
    Oct 23, 2025
    The Hill warns of climate Armageddon unless U.S. generals join the fight against ‘Mother Nature,’ now deemed a national security threat. […]
  • Shipping port near power plantEurope’s Energy Crisis Shows Net Zero Dogma Comes At A Cost
    Oct 23, 2025
    While China’s rare earth threat exposes U.S. supply chain risks, Europe’s energy crisis shows how net zero policies backfired spectacularly. […]
  • wind farm climate outDemocrats Ditch Climate Messaging As Rising Utility Costs Hit Voters
    Oct 23, 2025
    As Democrats struggle with climate messaging, voters feel the pinch from rising utility bills and the party's costly green energy policies. […]
  • Protest system change not climate changeLead Attorney Admits Real Goal Of Climate Lawsuits: Backdoor Carbon Tax
    Oct 23, 2025
    A top lawyer spearheading climate lawsuits says the quiet part out loud: litigation is a backdoor carbon tax on oil companies and consumers. […]
  • WMO reportHow The World Meteorological Organization Lies To You—Using Your Taxes
    Oct 22, 2025
    The WMO’s 2025 greenhouse gas report hides key data that undercuts the so-called climate 'crisis' narrative—funded by your tax dollars. […]
  • Hurricane generating ocean waves2025 Hurricane Season Is Flopping As Alarmist Predictions Fail
    Oct 22, 2025
    The 2025 hurricane season so far has seen no major U.S. landfalls, exposing alarmists’ failed predictions of catastrophic storms. […]

Get Instant Email Notifications

Subscribe to receive a digest of daily stories, or get emailed once they're published. Check your Junk/Spam folder for a verification email.

Submit a tip

Please enter your email, so we know you're human.

Books You May Like

exposing great lie

Have a suggestion? Let us know! We swap out books based on your input. We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. See here.

  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

© Portions copyright Climate Change Dispatch

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us

© 2025 Climate Change Dispatch

 
Share via
  • Facebook
  • Like
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • VKontakte
  • Print
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Buffer
  • Love This
  • Weibo
  • Pocket
  • Xing
  • Odnoklassniki
  • WhatsApp
  • Meneame
  • Blogger
  • Amazon
  • Yahoo Mail
  • Gmail
  • AOL
  • Newsvine
  • HackerNews
  • Evernote
  • MySpace
  • Mail.ru
  • Viadeo
  • Line
  • Flipboard
  • Comments
  • SMS
  • Viber
  • Telegram
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Kakao
  • LiveJournal
  • Yammer
  • Edgar
  • Fintel
  • Mix
  • Instapaper
  • Copy Link
  • Truth
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Gettr
  • Baidu
  • Mastodon
  • Threads
  • Bluesky
Share via
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • VKontakte
  • Print
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Buffer
  • Love This
  • Weibo
  • Pocket
  • Xing
  • Odnoklassniki
  • WhatsApp
  • Meneame
  • Blogger
  • Amazon
  • Yahoo Mail
  • Gmail
  • AOL
  • Newsvine
  • HackerNews
  • Evernote
  • MySpace
  • Mail.ru
  • Viadeo
  • Line
  • Flipboard
  • Comments
  • SMS
  • Viber
  • Telegram
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Kakao
  • LiveJournal
  • Yammer
  • Edgar
  • Fintel
  • Mix
  • Instapaper
  • Copy Link
  • Truth
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Gettr
  • Baidu
  • Mastodon
  • Threads
  • Bluesky