http://www.edmondsun.com/opinion/x1834674449/Cap-and-trade-remains-a-viable-solution February 19, 2010
Cap-and-trade remains a viable solution
MICKEY HEPNER The Edmond Sun
EDMOND — Concerned about air pollution, the president of the United States proposes a cap-and-trade program designed to reduce harmful emissions. Congress, seizing on the moment, accepts the president’s challenge and passes the measure with wide bipartisan support. As a result, these harmful emissions are reduced, thereby improving air quality for future generations.
Is this just wishful thinking? Hardly. This is what happened in 1990.
In 1989 President George Herbert Walker Bush, in response to concerns about air quality and acid rain, proposed tough new regulations on sulfur dioxide emissions. His policy of choice was a market-based system devised by economists called “cap-and-trade,” where polluters were given a fixed number of pollution credits each year. Polluters needing more credits for more pollution could buy additional unused credits from other firms. Essentially, this cap-and-trade program would put a price on sulfur dioxide emissions, giving polluters, for the first time, a financial incentive to reduce emissions.
How did Congress respond to the president’s proposal? In a display of bipartisanship rarely seen these days, both Republicans and Democrats rallied around the president’s proposal. Eventually, the measure (the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990) passed the House of Representatives on a 401-21 vote, and passed the Senate by an 89-11 margin. While it is interesting to note that Democrats in Congress set aside political posturing and worked with a Republican president to pass important legislation, the best part of the story is that economists were right — cap-and-trade works. Because of that cap-and-trade law, U.S. sulfur dioxide emissions plummeted by 40 percent during the past two decades. As a result, we enjoy cleaner air today.
...http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1085