Environmentalists and conservatives rushed today to weigh in on the Obama administration's estimate for the social cost of carbon before the public comment period ends tonight. The social cost of carbon (SCC) -- which estimates the incremental cost of a ton of carbon dioxide in property damage, health care costs and lost agricultural output -- has been a political lightning rod ever since an intergovernmental working group increased it sharply last year. Conservatives on and off Capitol Hill criticized the process the administration followed in revising the SCC estimate from the 2010 central value of $24 per metric ton of CO2 to $37 per metric ton for 2015. They have charged that the working group was motivated to artificially inflate the figure to help agencies justify costly regulations. The SCC has already been used in numerous Energy Department and U.S. EPA rulemakings, including last fall's EPA proposal for new power plant CO2 emissions.
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