Morning Brief: Barrasso tags SCC as ‘backdoor carbon tax’

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the top Republican on the Senate energy committee, is sharply criticizing the Biden administration’s strengthened social cost of carbon (SCC) metric, charging that the regulatory analysis tool represents a “backdoor” carbon tax. “The Biden administration’s plan amounts to a backdoor carbon tax that will saddle Americans with higher energy costs and more red tape,” he argues in a Feb. 26 statement in response to the White House unveiling “interim” SCC estimates that restore the Obama-era approach...