President Trump’s “open mind” on climate change seems to be closing. He’s preparing an executive order to kill Obama administration rules aimed at curbing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. It is almost as though Trump is determined to increase the amount of carbon and other greenhouse gases America pumps into the atmosphere.
As carbon emissions rise, so will the “social costs of carbon.” That’s a fairly new metric energy economists have developed to account for the many ways climate change can harm our economy as well as public health and safety. Harvard’s Joe Aldy, a PPI contributor, helped to develop the measure while serving in the Obama White House. In this piece on The Conversation, he explains how the social cost of carbon came to be and how it’s been used to keep the costs and benefits of regulation in balance.
