Key to Biden Climate Agenda: The Social Cost of Carbon Explained

Among President Joe Biden’s first acts in office was reassembling a cross-government team to figure out the “social cost of carbon,” a wonky number that has broad impacts on federal agency rules.

Biden signed an executive order Wednesday directing the team to publish an interim social cost of carbon within 30 days. Environmentalists and climate scientists agree that undoing the Trump administration’s changes to how the social cost of carbon is calculated will play a big role in federal policy, as well as in states that take their lead from the federal government.

1. What is the social cost of ...