Supreme Court Should Deny Request to Reinstate a Ban on Use of the Best Available Science about the Costs of Climate Damage

“The Fifth Circuit appropriately lifted a deeply flawed and unnecessary stay by a lower court, allowing policy makers to continue protecting people from climate pollution using the most up-to-date science. There is no need for Supreme Court intervention, and no reason to overrule the Fifth Circuit.”

            - Rosalie Winn, Director of Methane and Clean Air Policy, Environmental Defense Fund  

BACKGROUND

A federal district court judge in Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction in February restricting the Biden administration from using the latest social cost of carbon and other climate pollutants. These estimates reflect the best available scientific and economic analysis, based on extensive peer-reviewed information, to determine the monetary costs imposed by climate change. The government uses it to evaluate climate damage when establishing policies.

In March a panel of judges on the Fifth Circuit issued a stay of that injunction. The judges found that the Biden administration is likely to prevail on the merits when the case is fully heard. The full Fifth Circuit later declined to reconsider the stay.

Today the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming asked the Supreme Court to intervene and reimpose the stay.