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Executive Summary
For the past 25 years, emissions trading, knownmore recently as “cap-and-trade,” has been promot-ed as the best strategy for solving pollution prob-lems. Based on an obscure economic theory thatgained prominence in the 1960s at the University of Chicago, it was embraced by the Reagan administra-tion as a replacement for regulating air emissions.Since that time, it has gained acceptance amongenvironmental organizations and the largest envi-ronmental funders.Unfortunately, cap-and-trade can undermine exist-ing environmental law while, as NASA scientist JamesHansen observes, it “perpetuates the exact pollutionit is supposed to eliminate.”
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Indeed, while exist-ing pollution laws like the Clean Water Act call forthe elimination of pollutants from our air and water,cap-and-trade begins by accepting the right of peopleto pollute and then paying them not to. In this sense,trading is like paying someone not to rob your house.But cap-and-trade has problems even under its ownskewed assumptions. It leads to price volatility forbusinesses and can often put the cost for pollutioncleanup on those least able to afford it. Cap-and-trade too often relies on offsets, which have dubiousvalue, and on a permit allocation scheme thatbenefits current polluters at the expense of everyoneelse. And all of this takes place in an environmentthat trades current problems for future pollutionreductions, which are far from guaranteed to actuallyoccur. Cap-and-trade substitutes economic abstrac-tions that may or may not work for actual regulationand collective action to reduce environmental harm.
Introduction
Cap-and-trade is a radical shift in how environmentalregulation works. Traditional environmental regula-tion, called by its detractors “command-and-control”regulation, relies on permission, prohibition, stan-dard setting and enforcement to meet environmentalends.
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Regulated sectors need to meet the standardset or face enforcement penalties. Most classic U.S.regulation, including the Clean Air Act, first enactedin 1970, and the Clean Water Act, first enacted in 1972,fits that mold.
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Bad Credit: How Pollution Trading Fails the Environment
For the past 25 years, emissions trading, known more recently as “cap-and-trade,” has been promoted as the best strategy for solving pollution problems. Based on an obscure economic theory that gained prominence in the 1960s at…
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