Filed under: Business | Tags: cap and trade, carbon, carbon emissions, carbon fees, climate change, Congress, emissions, EPA, European Union, greenhouse gases, politics
Should the U.S. follow the European Union’s example of a cap-and-trade system to fight greenhouse gas emissions? No, according to two EPA lawyers who recently sent an open letter to Congress outlining their concerns over the proposed cap-and-trade legislation. Cited in the letter as problems with a cap-and-trade system are problems with verifying emissions, setting the beginning emissions cap, difficulties in policing the trading, a misplaced belief in the market theory, and the likelihood of enriching “polluting industries and their consultants.” The couple urges that the U.S. adopt a carbon fee system to combat greenhouse gas emissions.
It would be wise for lawmakers to listen to the couple’s arguments especially with the recent news out of the World Bank. The World’s Bank carbon finance unit recently stated “[t]he global carbon market more than doubled in value in 2007 to $64 billion, but that masked slow growth in actual greenhouse gas emissions cuts.” Sounds like the European Union’s carbon market is making a lot of consultants rich, not curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and generally not improving the environment. Hopefully, the U.S. can learn from the European Union’s shortfalls and not make the same mistakes.
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