Buried in a little-noticed rule on microwave ovens is a change in the U.S. government’s accounting for carbon emissions that could have wide-ranging implications for everything from power plants to the Keystone XL pipeline.
The increase of the so-called social cost of carbon, to $38 a metric ton in 2015 from $23.80, adjusts the calculation the government uses to weigh costs and benefits of proposed regulations. The figure is meant to approximate losses from global warming such as flood damage and diminished crops.Farmers should make out like bandits. Wahoo! Especially farmers in Texas.
More trouble for the Keystone XL? And that's just the beginning.
It looks like it's easier to double the "carbon tax" than it is to raise the minimum wage.
The real price could be as much as $300/metric ton.
As usual, numbers are rounded.
Cue up Connie Francis.
It is good to be King!
ReplyDelete200,000 new jobs to maintain current employment. Nope, call it 120,000 or 30,000.
The "cost" of carbon $20, $40, heck call it a $1,000.
If you don't like the numbers just the change the benchmarks. Pick whatever number makes you happy.
It is good to be King.
It is amazing, isn't it? All the baseline metrics that get changed. Some morning we will wake up to find out the dollar has been re-valued and the national debt has been erased.
Delete