COLOMBIA – SC Attorney General Alan Wilson joined 11 other states to sue the Biden government over an executive order that imposes a “social cost” on greenhouse gas emissions in determining federal regulations.
Wilson and the other state prosecutors in the Republican Party said the order would hurt the economy with new rules covering manufacturing and agriculture. Industries employ more than 300,000 in the state, with an annual economic impact of $ 80 billion, said Wilson.
“Manufacturing, agriculture and energy production are essential to South Carolina’s economy and employ thousands of South Carolina workers across the state,” Wilson said in a statement. “Under President Biden’s executive order, he did not had the authority to enact, these South Carolinian workers, who lived and worked on this land for generations, could be left behind ”.
Wilson said he is struggling with the reach of executive power and that the authority for this type of standard rests with Congress.
The social cost of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide is approximately $ 9.5 trillion, states the lawsuit.
“In practice, this huge number will be used to justify an equally huge expansion of federal regulatory power that will intrude on all aspects of Americans’ lives – from their cars, to their refrigerators and homes, to their food and electricity bills,” the suit says.
In February, Biden changed an unstable administrative figure with a potentially large impact: the “social cost of carbon”. The government attributes this cost to represent the social damage caused by greenhouse gases, which are warming the planet, encouraging more extreme climatic conditions and raising sea levels. It is not a carbon tax, which is a separate mechanism that some advocates suggest to reduce emissions.
Biden raised the cost back to Obama-era levels of $ 51 a ton. The number will be used to calculate the costs and benefits of a wide range of government actions and can facilitate the creation of new regulations that slow global warming.
South Carolina environmental advocates said Wilson’s action was political against the Democratic government.
“Surely, South Carolina’s attorney general is concerned about climate change?” said Frank Knapp, president of the Columbia-based Small Business Chamber of Commerce in South Carolina. “He’s doing what he normally does in politics. He’s trying to make Biden look bad.”
Eddy Moore, director of the energy and climate program at the Charleston-based Coastal Conservation League, said party policy should not play a role in climate change, which is behind the increase in flooding along the state’s coast and a winter storm that cut power in parts of Texas this year.
The costs of greenhouse gas emissions already have a major impact on the economy, and the president has a role to play in determining how this should impact regulations, he said.
“What will be costly for agriculture and manufacturing is climate change,” said Moore.
South Carolina is suing the administration with Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah.
Chloe Johnson Charleston contribution.