Abstract:

By using a range of inputs ranging from economics, the known emissions rates, and expected production it is possible to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions and social cost of carbon as oil, natural gas and coal move through the world economy. This is critical in evaluating the impact of potential new oil and gas leasing in Federal waters- leases which tend to last for approximately 70 years- complete with different possible production scenarios. That’s a sufficiently complex task, but it gets compounded when the information must pass legal muster, be useful for decisionmakers, and understandable for the general public.