Trump downplayed the costs of carbon pollution. That’s about to change

Trump downplayed the costs of carbon pollution. That’s about to change

3 years ago
Anonymous $y15ULlV7sG

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/trump-downplayed-costs-carbon-pollution-s-about-change

Power plant regulations could get stricter with a rise to estimates of the social cost of carbon.

Carbon pollution is about to get a lot more expensive. Over the past 4 years, the Trump administration low-balled the “social cost of carbon”—a number representing the burden that carbon emissions place on present and future generations, in terms of the cost of floods, droughts, farming losses, and death. The low estimate served to justify a permissive approach to regulating greenhouse gases, whether through power plant emissions rules or appliance efficiency standards. But now the cost—the price per ton of emitted carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide—is set to rise drastically.