My daughter is a "cap and trade" corporate lawyer in Australia (for a
few more days at least) and says that the program there is a disaster
(my word), as was the original version implemented in Europe.
There are several problems I can see with "cap and trade."
1. The "cap" is permission to pollute up to a certain level.
And so far the levels in countries with cap and trade have been set
quite high. In Europe the initial caps were higher than the actual
emission levels at the time of capping.
2. It is very expensive to implement both the capping and
the trading (especially if both emissions and offsets are actually
monitored and enforced): lots of bureaucrats and lawyers and business
people--everyone charging high fees at every step. Money wasted on
trading pollution credits could better be spent on conservation and
on building renewable energy sources.
3. People might confuse this non-solution for a solution and
not work towards something that will substantially slow green-house
gas emissions--such as a carbon tax, with the proceeds partially used
for conservation, renewable energy sources, and partially to replace
other forms of taxes.
However Joel has pinpointed the crucial problem with a carbon tax AND
its solution (fierce resistance by those whose profits will be
threatened).
I join him in hoping and praying and working for the necessary
"groundswell of popular support."
Margaret
>I think the cap and trade proponents would argue that that approach would
>also work, but a carbon tax seems complicated enough to me. Trouble is, it
>will require a groundswell of popular support to get it implemented in the
>face of fierce resistance by those whose profits will be threatened. That
>needs to happen, and I hope and pray that it will.
>
>Joel
>
>At 01:43 PM 12/13/07 -0500, you wrote:
>>I think Monbiot probably does support a carbon
>>tax; I certainly do. The only way I can see most
>>coal being left in the ground is if there is a
>>substantial tax on it "upstream" of its being
>>used: that is, the moment it leaves the ground.
>>
>>Margaret
>>
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