Environmental Pollution
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- Date Submitted: 09/18/2011 06:57 PM
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Pollution Rights Trading
SCI 207 /Dependence of Man on the Environment
Introduction
The problem is environmental pollution. It is contaminating the air, water and land. Pollution leads to reducing the ozone layer, global warming and climate change. The Clean Air Act of 1970 empowered the federal government to set emission standards that each state was required to enforce. The Clean Air Act was revised in 1977 and in 1990 to include incentives to encourage companies to lower emissions of chemicals responsible for the production of acid rain. The Act today identifies 189 pollutants for regulation (Cassils, J.A). One solution is to trade Pollution Rights to effectively control the environmental problems. There is reason for concern that the emissions trading can easily be abused and does not help the environmental pollution act.
The government came up with tradable pollution rights. Tradable pollution rights and emissions trading are being increasingly used as an environmental policy tool for pollution control. It allows firms to trade the right to emit specific pollutants. Tradable pollution rights were originally developed in the USA to cut costs to industry and enable economic growth to continue in highly polluted areas but they are increasingly being used in other countries for air (Moore 1994). The government figured it could control pollution by allowing companies to pay emission charges to emit pollution of certain pollutants. A company that emits less than the specified level of a pollutant is given a credit that allows them to emit more than the standard at some time in the future. The company is also allowed to sell these credits for cash to other firms who want to exceed the standards. Any facility that continued to pollute more than its allocated amount (roughly half of its 1990 rate) would then have to buy allowances from someone who is polluting less. The 110 most polluting facilities (mostly coal burners) were given five years to comply, while...
SCI 207 /Dependence of Man on the Environment
Introduction
The problem is environmental pollution. It is contaminating the air, water and land. Pollution leads to reducing the ozone layer, global warming and climate change. The Clean Air Act of 1970 empowered the federal government to set emission standards that each state was required to enforce. The Clean Air Act was revised in 1977 and in 1990 to include incentives to encourage companies to lower emissions of chemicals responsible for the production of acid rain. The Act today identifies 189 pollutants for regulation (Cassils, J.A). One solution is to trade Pollution Rights to effectively control the environmental problems. There is reason for concern that the emissions trading can easily be abused and does not help the environmental pollution act.
The government came up with tradable pollution rights. Tradable pollution rights and emissions trading are being increasingly used as an environmental policy tool for pollution control. It allows firms to trade the right to emit specific pollutants. Tradable pollution rights were originally developed in the USA to cut costs to industry and enable economic growth to continue in highly polluted areas but they are increasingly being used in other countries for air (Moore 1994). The government figured it could control pollution by allowing companies to pay emission charges to emit pollution of certain pollutants. A company that emits less than the specified level of a pollutant is given a credit that allows them to emit more than the standard at some time in the future. The company is also allowed to sell these credits for cash to other firms who want to exceed the standards. Any facility that continued to pollute more than its allocated amount (roughly half of its 1990 rate) would then have to buy allowances from someone who is polluting less. The 110 most polluting facilities (mostly coal burners) were given five years to comply, while...