Regulatory Tracker

Methane Emissions

The Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide)

Last updated:

March 12, 2025

Agencies

EPA, NHTSA

Actions

Rolled Back

Current Status

President Trump disbanded the interagency working group on the social cost of greenhouse gases (IWG) and withdrew the working group’s guidance documents. President Trump also ordered EPA to issue a report reviewing how and whether the social cost of carbon should be used in federal permitting and regulatory decisions, and in the interim, ordered agencies to use emissions estimates from the 2003 version of OMB’s Circular A-4.

Why It Matters

The “social cost of greenhouse gases (SC-GHGs)” (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) quantifies the net harm to society of adding one ton of emissions of each of these GHGs in a year. SC-GHGs provides a range of dollar estimates that can be used to incorporate the social benefits of reducing emissions into cost-benefit analyses. The estimates also help agencies better consider the costs that GHG emissions impose on society, and calculate the benefit of reducing pollution. When the social cost of GHGs is not part of a government agency’s cost-benefit analysis, there is less regulatory leverage for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

President Obama created the Interagency Working Group (IWG) in 2009 to create consistent estimates for use across agencies that use the best available science. The IWG published its first estimates of the social cost of carbon (SC-CO2) in 2010 and updated them in 2013. In 2016, the IWG published a technical update that included the social costs of methane (SC-CH4) and nitrous oxide (SC-N2O).

Timeline