The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling that Missouri and other states did not have standing to challenge President Biden’s executive order directing federal agencies to use estimates of the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions (SC-GHG) to analyze the costs and benefits of agency actions. The Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) published interim SC-GHG estimates in February 2021; the states argued that the executive order’s directive and the estimates violated separation of powers principles as well as statutes such as the Clean Air Act and Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The Eighth Circuit found that the states did not allege an injury in fact that was fairly traceable to the SC-GHG estimates. The court concluded that the states’ alleged economic injuries, including increased costs of regulated goods and services and loss of tax revenues from regulated economic activity, would not result from the interim SC-GHG estimates themselves but from hypothetical future federal action. The court also rejected the contention that the interim estimates caused a “sovereign” injury by intruding on states’ role as regulators. In addition, the Eighth Circuit concluded that the states failed to allege a procedural injury based on the IWG’s failure to follow the APA’s notice-and-comment procedures when it published the interim estimates.

Challenge brought by states to challenge executive order that required development and application of a social cost of carbon.

Missouri v. Biden

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Eighth Circuit Said States Lacked Standing to Challenge Social Cost of Greenhouse Gas Estimates

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Eighth Circuit Said States Lacked Standing to Challenge Social Cost of Greenhouse Gas Estimates

Policy instrument

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance