This policy brief conducts an informal analysis of the costs and benefits of H.R. 2454: the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. EPA has prepared a formal estimate of this bill’s costs, but has not considered the benefits.

 

Using data provided by EPA, as well as new calculations of the damages from greenhouse gas emissions recently developed by a federal interagency task force, this brief estimates the benefits of H.R. 2454’s cap on greenhouse gas emissions. The results indicate that H.R. 2454 is cost‐benefit justified under most reasonable assumptions about the likely “social cost of carbon.”

 

http://www.policyintegrity.org/documents/OtherSideoftheCoin.pdf

 

Dr. Stephen R. Humphrey, Director,
School of Natural Resources and Environment,
Box 116455, 103 Black Hall, University of Florida
Gainesville, FL  32611-6455  USA
Tel. 352-392-9230, Fax 352-392-9748
http://snre.ufl.edu