E&E DAILY | A group of Senate Republican committee leaders are pressing the Biden administration on its use of a crucial climate metric, offering a preview of how they might handle oversight of the president on energy policy if they take over Congress next year.
In a letter Friday led by Environment and Public Works ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Republicans claimed the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases has not been transparent in how it is helping to shape the Biden administration's regulatory agenda.
The GOP group had previously requested information from the working group last year, but the senators said its leadership has "neither acknowledged, nor responded to, our oversight request" (E&E Daily, Nov. 5, 2021).
"The lack of responsiveness is at odds with the Administration’s commitment to transparency and its policy 'to comply with Congressional requests for information to the fullest extent consistent with constitutional and statutory obligations of the Executive Branch' which Department of Justice recently reaffirmed," the Republicans wrote to the working group co-chairs. "Since our November letter, the challenges facing our economy from factors foreign and domestic have only worsened."
Their criticism centers on the social cost of greenhouse gases, which measures the economic impact of 1 ton of emissions and underpins climate regulation across the federal government. Republicans have gone after the metric for years.
The Interagency Working Group was originally formed during the Obama administration and revived by President Joe Biden with an executive order at the beginning of last year.
The Trump administration slashed the social cost of carbon to as little as $1 per ton, helping agencies justify a slate of regulatory rollbacks. Biden's administration, however, has pegged it at $51 on an interim basis, with higher values for more potent greenhouse gases.
The working group is expected to release updated numbers on the social cost of greenhouse gases soon. But the interim measure has also been the subject of a court battle, with a federal judge initially blocking it before a higher court allowed the Biden administration to continue using it. Capito has also weighed in with EPA on its use of the interim measure as the court battle has dragged on (E&E Daily, March 9).
In the letter Friday, Republicans asked for a raft of information from the working group and argued that its social cost figures are "being marshalled by federal agencies in an attempt to slow or stop the development of energy resources and infrastructure."
Other signatories include Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and seven additional committee ranking members.
"Given the need for affordable energy both by American families and our allies abroad — in particular those in Europe — these examples are troubling," they wrote. "For example, the Environmental Protection Agency has repeatedly relied on the SC-GHG to oppose natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure — asserting that these critical energy projects would lead to billions of dollars in climate damages."