Cap and Trade

Personally I'd lean towards a mixture of a number of global warming mitigation policies: cap-and-trade, a gradually increasing revenue-neutral carbon tax, regulatory and tax incentives coupled with a strong technology transfer [export] program. That's simply because it seems that a cap-and-trade scheme to get the ball rolling with industry first is necessary before a broad carbon tax can be imposed--the tax is politically difficult, but if it's scheduled to take effect after industry figures out how to accomodate it and is raised gradually to a level that doesn't shock consumers it might be doable. At least one can always hope. The incentives and tech transfer can be ongoing regardless.

If I remember correctly, this was part of the shell-game during some of the Kyoto negotiations of the '90s. And the debate followed a fairly simple program set up by those who favored no action at all...[Go ahead and click, the buttons should work]:







So I don't know quite what to think at this point. But here are two recent arguments voicing opposition to cap-and-trade: Stirling Newberry and Matt Stoler.