Word: caps
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...purely intentional.) The government could simply mandate reduced emissions, or force power plants to install expensive SO2 and NO scrubbers, but that might not be efficient. To Sandor, the answer was clear: markets. He wrote a position paper for a green group arguing for the creation of a cap-and-trade system for acid rain, one that would put a government-mandated limit on the level of pollutants power plants and factories could emit, but allow companies that came in under the limit to trade their excess capacity to companies that exceeded their caps. The market drives companies...
...emissions of SO2 and NO have dropped drastically, as has acid rain. Emissions trading worked because by pricing the air, it helps drive innovation towards pollution control and efficiency, funded in part by the value of the emissions trading market. (Companies that spent to lower their emissions beneath the cap could recoup that investment by selling their excess emissions credits.) Just as importantly, it did so on the cheap, at a cost considerably beneath early estimates...
...been a success. Today, he notes, CCX has more than 400 corporate members, who last year traded 23 million tons worth of carbon emissions - up from 10.3 million in 2006. Over in London, where Sandor opened up a European Climate Exchange - and where companies labor under Kyoto-mandatory carbon caps - trading has been strong, and the company itself is worth over $1 billion. "Carbon cap and trade is not a thing of tomorrow or a thing of today, but a thing of yesterday," says Sandor. "It's been working and going on now for five years without a hitch...
...truly drive the massive global carbon emissions cuts needed to avert dangerous climate change, a voluntary market like CCX will never be enough. What's needed is a mandatory carbon cap in the biggest carbon market of all - the U.S. If and when that happens, we may see carbon emissions drop as rapidly as SO2 and NO has fallen under Sandor's acid rain market - without emptying our national wallet. "I'm optimistic," says Sandor. "The potential [cap-and-trade] legislation is moving in the right direction. If we design the building right, it won't punish the economy...
...global warming, for instance, he and Senator Joe Lieberman introduced a cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions 60% below 1990 levels by 2050. McCain's recent body language indicates he would not be nearly as comprehensive as the Democrats; he probably would not, for example, auction off the right to pollute for major corporate spewers - which could raise significant funds for alternative-energy research. But the old McCain-Lieberman plan had the look of a half-a-loaf compromise that could eventually get through Congress - and take the global-warming issue off the table in the election...