Climate Science vs. Fossil Fuel Fiction

The Union of Concerned Scientists challenges Peabody Energy's 2014 claim that the benefits of CO2 outweigh its costs by 'orders of magnitude,' asserting instead that the social costs of carbon pollution—such as drought, heat waves, and coastal flooding—far exceed any benefits. The document details Peabody Energy's repeated efforts to challenge the EPA's endangerment finding and the IPCC's findings, as well as its affiliations with industry groups like ALEC and ACCCE to promote climate disinformation.

• The Union of Concerned Scientists disputes Peabody Energy's 2014 assertion that the benefit-cost ratios of CO2 range up to more than 200-to-1, stating that scientific consensus holds that the long-term costs of carbon pollution outweigh the benefits of increasing emissions.
• The U.S. Government's 2014 estimate for the social cost of carbon (SCC) was $37 per metric ton of CO2 in 2015 (based on 2007 dollars and a 3% discount rate), though the document notes this is likely an underestimate of actual climate change costs.
• Peabody Energy has a history of attempting to overturn the EPA's endangerment finding, including a 2009 submission arguing for a 'balanced view' of CO2 as 'plant food' and a 2010 petition leveraging the 'Climategate' email incident to attack the IPCC and the National Climate Assessment.
• In 2014, Peabody Energy challenged the EPA's Clean Power Plan proposal by claiming that the IPCC's findings were 'fatally flawed' and that there is no science supporting the causal link between greenhouse gas levels and climate change.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2015). Climate Science vs. Fossil Fuel Fiction. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/peabodyenergyquote2014.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Climate Science vs. Fossil Fuel Fiction. 2015. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/peabodyenergyquote2014.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Climate Science vs. Fossil Fuel Fiction |date=March 2015 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/peabodyenergyquote2014.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2015climate, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Climate Science vs. Fossil Fuel Fiction}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/peabodyenergyquote2014.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }