Quote of the Day #2, May 26th, 2009
"The United States already has a working cap-and-trade system, used since 1995 to cut back the gases blamed for acid rain. The Environmental Protection Agency says the trading system has reduced the overall cost of cutting acid-rain-causing pollutants to one-third of what was projected.But comparing the two problems is like comparing a horn section and an orchestra.
Acid-rain pollutants can be sucked out of a smokestack by adding "scrubbers." But nothing like that is commercially available for carbon dioxide -- polluters might have to replace the coal they burn with a different fuel, or replace the coal-burning plants with solar "farms" and windmills.
Also, greenhouse gases come from far more sources: power plants, factories, car tailpipes, and both ends of a well-fed dairy cow (though the bill doesn't tackle that one: cows could still burp free of charge)."
-The Washington Post, "Caps, Trades and Offsets: Can Climate Plan Work?" (May 26, 2009).
For more on the huge differences between SO2/Acid Rain and greenhouse gases/climate change, see our recent post: "Cap and Trade Worked for Acid Rain, Why Not for Climate Change?"