US renewables receive unfair advantage
State administrations are using a flawed metric to justify green energy projects
State governments in the US are pushing a green thumb on the energy policy scale. Cost-benefit studies commissioned by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, for example, determined that the benefits of several proposed (and recently cancelled by the developers’) offshore wind projects were twice their costs, despite those projects’ contractual purchase prices for electricity that were 3–4 times higher than wholesale market prices. The reason: the estimated reductions in carbon emissions accounted for 60% of the total benefits. However, the state used a flawed measurement, the social cost of carbon (SCC), to calculate the benefits of CO₂ reductions and justify projects that, if built, wou
Also in this section
3 June 2025
Africa faces challenges in adopting CCS but also has vast potential, with the technology being not just a climate tool but a catalyst for development
2 June 2025
Rather than a simple climate option, CCS is now being seen as a workable solution for Africa’s growth strategy
27 May 2025
EU Parliament and Council both agree to exempt bulk of importers from paying a carbon tax on goods imported into the EU
27 May 2025
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage needs stable policy, investable frameworks and coordinated infrastructure if it is to be developed at scale
