What the US Can Learn From Europe's Pollution Credit System 425
Al writes "Technology Review discusses what a US carbon trading scheme could learn from the flawed European experience. Advocates of carbon-trading schemes like to point to Europe's cap-and-trade program as a model worthy of emulation, but the reality has been less than perfect. A glut of pollution credits, distributed without cost during both the first, transitional phase of the program and the current working phase, drove down the value of the EUAs. As a result, Europe's carbon dioxide emissions remain priced well below 20 euros per ton. With the price of pollution so low, economists say, industries that generate and consume energy have no incentives to change their habits; it is still cheaper to use fossil fuels than to switch to technologies that pollute less. Establishing a carbon price in the US system now, and tightening the system later, could send a dangerously wrong signal to financial markets looking to invest in new energy technologies."
Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:5, Funny)
Yup.
I particularly like how we're taxing carbon. Carbon is a dirty word now, despite it never harming anyone.
Unlike the real threat of Di-Hydrogen Monoxide!
Re:And one lesson you can learn *before* failing (Score:5, Funny)
Specifically, the BRIC block (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).
Not to mention Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, and Oman. The LEGOBRICs will be the building blocks of our destruction.
Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:5, Funny)
Carbon never harmed anyone?! Are you kidding!? How much carbon is in a bullet? How much of a bomb's explosiveness is due to carbon reactions? I'll tell you: lots. You say Carbon's a dirty word, I'll tell you what: you're right...it is dirty. Have you ever handled powdered carbon, aka graphite? All it does is dirty stuff up. That stuff's nasty. So I think it's appropriate that carbon is a dirty word...it's a dirty, dirty element.
If carbon didn't exist, we'd live in a very different world.
Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:4, Funny)
I heard about that... that's some scary shit. Like how if you breath it, it will kill you damn fast. Apparently it feels a lot like drowning.
Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:If carbon didn't exist (Score:5, Funny)
We are ugly bags of mostly Di-Hydrogen Monoxide.
Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:5, Funny)
Too much science supports the conclusion that CO2 insulates and raises temperature of an atmosphere to ignore.
You're wrong.
If one is motivated enough and cultivates the proper mindset, it is possible to reach a high enough level of ignore-ance to overcome any given quantity of science, evidence, and logic.
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Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:5, Funny)
Gee thanks budyd. That is so not true!
Sorry for the tpyoes, I'm psoting this from the emergnecy room on my balckberry... the doctors said it'll be a three hour operation to remove the pencils from my wife.
Re:If carbon didn't exist (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Success depends on the goal (Score:3, Funny)
The green movement is basically a watermelon, enviro green on the outside and red communist inside.
And don't forget the Seeds Of Homosexuality inside!
Remember kids, Jesus hates commies, and he hates gays, and he hates the environment, ummmm and he hates watermelons. Jesus especially hates the Gay Seeds of Homosexuality in watermelons.
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Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:3, Funny)
I heard about that... that's some scary shit. Like how if you breath it, it will kill you damn fast. Apparently it feels a lot like drowning.
Although it is controversial, I heard about it being used for torture. Some would argue that DHMO is only used for enhanced interrogation techniques, though.
Re:That any government attempt to control... (Score:3, Funny)
You haven't looked hard enough [tinyurl.com]
Laboratory test confirms it, the function of Greenhouses confirms it, and a large scale "test" is currently being conducted on a global scale, that is also confirming it.