Dear Acting Director Fairweather, Ms. Leonard, Dr. Fisher and Deputy Administrator Mancini:
On January 20, President Biden signed Executive Order 13990, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.”1 A key component of that order focuses on accounting for the benefits and costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including revising guidance regarding the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC), Social Cost of Nitrous Oxide (SCN) and Social Cost of Methane (SCM).
Under the order, the President has directed an interagency working group to update these estimates based in part on recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences (NAS). The group is tasked with publishing interim estimates of these economically significant values within 30 days of the Order and a final set of updated estimates by January 2022.
