On Tue, Jul 01, 2003 at 01:09:22PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote: > What you describe has already happened. The "right" to pollute the air > that people breathe is already bought and sold like a commodity in the > U.S. > > http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2003/04/21/story8.html We actually discussed this (pollution permits in general, not the article to which you refer) in the introductory economics class I'm taking now. Basically, that allows the government to cause a reduction in pollution relative to pre-permit levels at the least economic cost possible, using free-market principles to allocate the permits efficiently. In other words, those people who can reduce pollution cheaply will sell the permits to those who have a harder time reducing pollution, using the profits to offset the cost to their business of reducing pollution. If the total amount of pollution allowed by all the permits is less than the pollution before, this will be an environmental gain at minimal cost. If they built in some way for the allowed quantities to be adjusted (e.g., variable-value or finite-duration permits), they can do further reductions using the same free-market-based system. I think it's pretty clever, actually, and it's a good thing for the environment rather than a bad one. You're not going to get rid of all pollution, because that would shut down too much business/industry, and this solution allows for reduction to desired levels in the most economically efficient manner possible. You and I often have the same knee-jerk reaction to things, and the first time I heard about these (a few years ago) I had the same negative reaction you did. Now that I have learned about it, my reaction in this case has changed. - Jimmy Kaplowitz jimmy@debian.org
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