"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?"
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus do not want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, do they? Someone must save the precious economy from environmental regulation! The polluting industries of this world really want to make money and Breakthrough Insitute will protect them.
Posted by: David Mathews at May 27, 2009 11:24 AM