Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama have endorsed putting into place a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions though they differ on how that system should be structured.
Sens. Clinton and Obama both say they would cut emissions 80% by the year 2050. Sen. McCain aims for a lower 65% target. Sens. Clinton and Obama have rejected calls from utilities and other businesses to allocate the initial polluting rights based on a company’s current emissions. Instead, they want to auction off all the pollution rights. Sen. McCain is less clear on this point.
Moreover, the impact of such scheme on the economy may not be substantial. According to an analysis prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), published on March 14 2008, the leading congressional proposal to control greenhouse-gas emissions could be implemented without significantly harming U.S. economic growth over the next two decades.
According to the analysis, if the U.S. were to implement the bill, GDP growth over 2010 – 2030 would be one percentage point less than in the absence of the bill. However, it projects that the proposal would cause electricity prices to increase by 44% by 2030.
The proposed bill would cap greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, factories, oil refineries and other polluters. EPA also declared that, if it determines that greenhouse-gas emissions human health or well fare, it could have to impose costly new permitting requirements on a range of relatively small emitters of carbon dioxide, including large apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and retail stores.
Source: WSJ, 18/03/08
