To achieve this goal, the U.S. government should steadily tighten the cap until emissions are reduced to 80 percent below 1990 levels by Businesses would have to obtain permits entitling them to emit a certain quantity of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases. All permits would be auctioned off by the government. Emissions permits in the near term would likely fall in the range of $10 to $15 per metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent data

For the first time in years, President Obama made climate change a major focus in his State of the Union address, continuing a gradual pivot back to environmental issues that appeared to begin around the time of Hurricane Sandy. He didn't just say, "We must do more to combat climate change"— he made actual proposals, including a "race to the top" for state-level energy efficiency initiatives and an energy security trust.

“The scope of the problem,” says Nicholas Bianco of the World Resource Institute, who has studied the U.S. executive’s power over emissions, “is too enormous not to have Congress taking an active role. The science is quite clear that we cannot delay.”

What externalities have been internalized? Name of Law? Air Quality/ Clean Air Act Visibility/ Regional Haze Rule Noise Pollution/ Grand Canyon Overflights Water Pollution/ Clean Water Act Extinction/ Endangered Species Act Fires/ Building Codes Smell/ Zoning

For the past decade, ten states stretching from Maine to Maryland have been experimenting with their own modest cap on carbon pollution from electric power plants. And, this week, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) announced that it would continue to cut emissions by tightening the cap between now and 2020.

The top-line news is encouraging: Carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants in the Northeast have fallen very sharply since the plan was first devised — from 188 million tons of carbon-dioxide in 2005 to 91 million tons in 2012 Recession

As a result, permits to emit carbon-dioxide are extremely plentiful and cheap, costing just $1.93 per ton of carbon. If you’re an electric utility, there’s little incentive to invest in efficiency or renewable power to avoid the cost of buying up pollution permits.

$50/ton by 2030

The program has also been quite lucrative for the states involved, which have raised about $912 million since 2009 from auctioning off pollution permits. States have used that money in different ways. Many have set up programs to improve energy efficiency.

Social Responsibility Triple Bottom Line International Collapse of Chicago Climate Exchange Means a Strategy Shift on Global Warming Curbs 11/9/ What’s new

Initial estimates by the Congressional Budget Office project that an economy-wide cap-and-trade program would generate at least $50 billion per year, but could reach up to $300 billion. Approximately 10 percent of this revenue should be allocated to help offset costs to businesses and shareholders of affected industries.

Of the remaining revenue, approximately half should be devoted to help offset any energy price increases for low- and middle-income Americans that may occur as a result of the transition to more efficient energy sources. The other half of the remaining revenue should be used to invest in renewable energy, efficiency, low-carbon transportation technologies, green-collar job training, and the transition to a low-carbon economy.

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