Louisiana Asks SCOTUS to Block Biden Administration From Calculating ‘Social Cost’ of Carbon Emissions

Louisiana Asks SCOTUS to Block Biden Administration From Calculating ‘Social Cost’ of Carbon Emissions
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (C) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 22, 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Matthew Vadum
Matthew Vadum
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Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is vowing to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent the Biden administration from recalculating and using the “social cost” of carbon emissions, a metric used in climate regulation that critics say needlessly drives up operating costs for businesses and prices for consumers.

Critics have long said that the classification of carbon dioxide, the gas humans expel from their lungs when breathing, as a pollutant makes no sense. Carbon dioxide is essential to life on the planet and is used in the process of photosynthesis, which spurs plant growth. But environmentalists claim that human-created carbon dioxide contributes to climate change.