In 2009, the Obama administration brought 12 federal agencies together to hash out a best estimate of the social cost of carbon. At the time, some researchers and environmentalists criticized the Obama number for being incomplete. under Scott Pruitt came up with its own “interim” estimate of the social cost of carbon. That change alone reduced the social cost of carbon estimate to around $7 per ton. If the United States refused to consider the impacts of its emissions on other countries, other countries could respond in kind.

Source: New York Times August 23, 2018 16:52 UTC