In 2018, New Jersey established a Zero-Emissions Certificate (ZEC) program, which provides subsidies to the state’s nuclear power plants for reducing carbon emissions in the energy sector. Implementation of that program was challenged in court and, in January 2020, we filed an amicus brief to explain that the Social Cost of Carbon is the best available estimate for valuing harms caused by carbon dioxide emissions and that the ZEC program should account for the benefits of avoided emissions both inside and outside of New Jersey. We filed a similar brief in February 2022 in response to a similar challenge to the second round of ZEC program implementation.
Previously, we’ve filed comments and briefs discussing the use of SCC estimates by New York’s ZECs program.