News
Biden administration freezes new oil and gas drilling leases after court rules against key climate tool
The pause comes after a judge ruled against Biden’s social cost of carbon metric, which uses models to put a value on each ton of carbon dioxide emitted to quantify the economic harm caused by the climate crisis, like sea level rise and wildfires.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: fossil fuels
State of Play
Fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas, primarily — remain the dominant energy sources for much of the world, with their accompanying infrastructure of mines, drilling and production wells, pipelines and various forms of transportation. But they have become more problematic as governments struggle to address climate change and pivot to energy sources that do not result in carbon dioxide emissions.