Cost of Carbon lawsuit dismissed

NEW ORLEANS - A lawsuit, filed by the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming, challenging figures the Biden administration uses to calculate damages from greenhouse gasses was unanimously dismissed April 6 by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. It was the latest defeat for states challenging the Biden administration “cost of carbon” policy. It leaves the administration to continue using the $51/ton damage cost estimate of carbon dioxide emissions as it develops environmental regulations. That estimate is under review by the government and likely will increase. The Biden cost estimate had been used during former President Barack Obama's administration. President Biden restored it after former President Donald Trump had reduced it to about $7/ton. A federal judge in Louisiana had ordered a halt to the administration’s approach early last year. The states said the policy threatened to drive up energy costs while decreasing state revenues from energy production. The New Orleans Court of Appeals blocked that judge’s order and the Supreme Court declined to intervene. On April 6, the appeals court dismissed the case, saying the challenging states had not shown that the regulations caused the economic harms cited in the lawsuit. The administration is reviewing the $51 estimate. The EPA has proposed a cost roughly four times higher. A 2022 study in the journal Nature concluded the price should be $185 per ton. (The AP 04/06/23)