What emissions cap and trade programs are, or were, in place in the US?

SO2 (acid rain) was controlled by a cap and trade program.
The Clean Air Mercury Rule, built on EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), institutes a cap and trade program for mercury emissions from coal plants (currently capped at 38 tons of mercury annually).

Are/were there others? Are/were they successful? Is/was the cost too much to bear given the (projected) outcome? Are there estimates of ultimate cost to the end-user? Did wall street get rich off these trading plans?

http://www.epa.gov/CAMR/basic.htm
http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/trading/factsheet.html

2011-01-21T10:51:39Z

TOOTAl2: Hm, do you have anything to back up your opinion? 2 C&T programs are already in place regulating power production; I do not think they have ruined the economy of the US. Just as a datapoint, without the mercury cap, we were putting 50 >TONS< of mercury into the environment every year via coal plant emissions. How much is it worth to you to reduce it? Something? Nothing?

2011-01-21T10:54:41Z

Ok, 2 answers saying it "will kill" the economy but did anyone read the question, and the pointers to the 2 existing plans which, AFAICT, have -not- killed the economy? I wasn't asking for opinions, I'd like to know if there are more in place already for various environmental problems.

It's funny how these things shift, the SO2 C&T plan was put into place as a republican-friendly, market-based approach under the G.H.W. Bush administration. Now? It's socialism, clearly.

2011-01-21T10:57:06Z

I'd also like to know how C&T redistributes from poor to rich. Coal plant A puts better scrubbers on, sells leftover rights to coal plant B, and money goes from poor person to rich person how, exactly?

Dana19812011-01-21T16:23:00Z

Favorite Answer

California will soon set up a carbon cap and trade system, but it's not in place yet.

Cccording to a 2010 United States Office of Budget and Management (OMB) Report, the EPA issued 30 major environmental regulations from 1999 to 2009 at an estimated cost of $25.8 billion to $29.2 billion. The estimated benefits of these regulations ranged from $81.9 billion to $533 billion. The benefits outweighed the costs 3 to 20 times over! That includes the cap and trade systems you mentioned. I would call that successful.

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Barley2011-01-21T19:38:58Z

The electric utilities raised a fit over the cap-and-trade for acid rain. They said it would cost consumers too much. They decided to put the cost on each customer's bill. It isn't on my current electric bill. The last time I saw it, I had to pay an extra 18 cents a month. Wow.

Reducing acid rain has been a big success. The economy did not fall apart. Similarly, better! refrigerants were found to replace freon. The deterioration of the ozone layer appears to have stopped and will soon be healing.

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Anonymous2011-01-21T18:50:39Z

Sap & trade is just a scam to redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich. It will kill the economy. But then that is the objective of environmentalist.

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TOOTAl22011-01-21T16:29:36Z

Cap and trade will kill the economy of the usa

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