Leading Senate Republicans are asking the White House for updates on the activities of President Joe Biden's working group on social cost of greenhouse gasses, which he created via executive order on his first day in office.
Nine committee ranking members, including Shelley Moore Capito of Environment and Public Works, sent a letter to the White House on Friday asking for information on the working group’s mechanics, membership, and details about how it will solicit public comment on its update to the “SC-GHG.”
The working group was ordered to develop new estimates for the monetized damages resulting from carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions.
In the meantime, the administration had been using an interim cost of $51 per ton of carbon in particular when performing environmental reviews before a federal judge enjoined them from doing so in February. A federal court later lifted the injunction, allowing agencies to employ the methodology again.
The Interior Department noted in its onshore lease sale announcement last month, which shrank the acreage to be made available by 80%, that it had performed its environmental assessment with the $51 per ton social cost of carbon value, and it only announced the lease sales once the appeals court lifted the order enjoining its use.
The Republican members pointed to the shrinking of acreage and said the working group’s GHG interim recommendations “are being marshaled by federal agencies in an attempt to slow or stop the development of energy resources and infrastructure.”