Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The SWAG Method at EPA

Most of you know what the acronym stands for.  If you don't, find someone who does.

Here's the EPA version.

The increase of the so-called social cost of carbon, to $38 a metric ton in 2015 from $23.80, adjusts the calculation the government uses to weigh costs and benefits of proposed regulations. The figure is meant to approximate losses from global warming such as flood damage and diminished crops. …

... Even supporters questioned the way the administration slipped the policy out without first opening it for public comment. The change was buried in an afternoon announcement on May 31 about efficiency standards for microwave ovens, a rule not seen as groundbreaking.

“This is a very strange way to make policy about something this important,” Frank Ackerman, an economist at Tufts University who published a book about the economics of global warming, said in an interview.  --Bloomberg quoted at HotAir

That's about a 60% increase, with no justification attached, and no public hearings.

"Whaddya want the Cost/Ton to be, hey?"

"I dunno.......let's make it $38.00.  It's Friday go-home time."

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