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February 22, 2022

Biden Admin Delays Oil and Gas Leases After Judge's Ruling on "Social Cost of Carbon"
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The Biden administration has paused the sale of oil and gas leases on
public lands after a federal judge in Louisiana blocked the government
from considering the cost of future damage from the climate crisis in
its decision-making. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge James Cain
- a Trump appointee - barred federal agencies from using a higher value
of the "social cost of carbon" - a metric that assigns a dollar value to
each ton of greenhouse gases emitted. The Justice Department has
promised to appeal the ruling, which is preventing at least four
different agencies from finalizing at least 38 pending environmental
rules.


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