Full Title: Rolling the DICE on Environmental Regulations: A Close Look at the Social Cost of Methane and Nitrous Oxide
Author(s): Kevin D. Dayaratna & Nicolas D. Loris
Publisher(s): The Heritage Foundation
Publication Date: January 1, 2017
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency utilizes three statistical models to quantify the social cost of carbon (SCC) and has also tried to quantify the costs of other greenhouse gas emissions, including methane and nitrous oxide. It then uses the results of these models, which artificially inflate the dollar value of abated GHG emissions, to justify costly global warming regulations. Previous Heritage Foundation research found that two of these models are far too sensitive to reasonable changes in assumptions for reliable use in policymaking. This study examines the social cost of methane (SCM) and the social cost of nitrous oxide (SCN₂O) as determined by the DICE model and finds that the EPA’s estimates of these statistics are just as unreliable as its SCC estimates. The next EPA Administrator should initiate a rulemaking process that eliminates from EPA cost-benefit analysis of regulatory actions any use of estimates of the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions until such time as more accurate and reliable models of those costs can be developed.