Question Earthority!

“There are two (or maybe two and a half) very efficient ways of putting a price on emissions. You tax emissions and include an escalator clause that increases until they drop as far as you want. You can put a cap in place, auction the resulting permits, and keep dropping the cap until you get the reductions you want. Or, in a hybrid system, you put the same cap and auction in place, but with a minimum permit price to reduce volatility. But feeding the revenues back into fighting emissions — a negative carbon tax or emissions fee — well, there is no really automated way to do that. Sean Casten made a very smart stab at a formula. Set a standard based on the ratio of emissions to useful BTUs delivered. If someone is more efficient than the standard, they have permits to sell. Someone who is less efficient than the standard has permits to buy.” (04/30/08)