In December 2023, eighteen children in California filed a lawsuit against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for violating their constitutional right to equal protection of the law. This case, Genesis B. v. U.S. EPA, directly challenges the EPA’s application of OMB discount rates used to conduct regulatory analysis. EPA cost-benefit analyses weigh the current value of climate pollution control impacts that reach decades into the future. Discount rates set by OMB value the benefits of life-saving pollution regulations such that a life (or good health) today is valued more than many lives in the future. With OMB discount rates, the impacts from climate change that today’s children will suffer later in their lives hold little weight in determining the value of essential emission reduction measures.
Over the past few decades, the U.S. federal government has employed discount rates as high as 10 percent, and as low as 2 percent, to determine if pollution reduction measures are worth the cost. At no point, however, has OMB’s discount rate been set to value today’s children’s lives, health and safety as equal to or more than that of today’s adults. The choice of discount rate is not only a question of economics, but also a question of ethics: While OMB uses discount rates of 2 percent or greater, a discount rate of zero percent weighs current adults equally to current children.
Dr. Stanton’s (and co-signers’) Amicus Curiae in the Case of Genesis B. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency includes a review of OMB discount rates by U.S. presidential administration, showing the pattern of fluctuations over time.
