Senators urge FERC to include social cost of carbon in pipeline review
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Wednesday urging the commission to consider the social cost of carbon pollution in its review of the Southeast Market Pipelines (SMP) Project.
FERC previously approved the pipeline, but a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ultimately struck down the decision. The court ordered that FERC must consider the effects of the carbon pollution associated with the project before the project could move forward.
In FERC’s draft supplemental environmental impact statement issued in response to the court’s order, the commission said it would not use the social cost of carbon, a metric created by the federal government for calculating the impacts of climate change. The metric covers effects such as drops in agricultural productivity, public health effects, property damage and changes in energy costs.
FERC is accepting comments on the SMP Project through the end of the month. Whitehouse and Bennet’s letter will be submitted as a comment in the project’s docket.
