Cap and Trade Policy: In the Past Essay

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Cap and Trade Policy:

In the past few years, there has been solid scientific evidence that global warming or climate change is taking place. This has contributed to the birth of carbon emissions trading within the European region and the enactment of several mitigation initiatives at the state level. These measures have in turn exerted pressure on the federal government to control the emission of carbon dioxide, which has reached fever pitch. Actually, the Bush Administration declared that America will work with other countries to develop a new model for the emissions of greenhouse gases though focusing on adaptation and energy-efficient technologies. In addition, the U.S. Congress is considering adopting the cap and trade policy within the economy because of the success of sulfur-trading initiatives that were enforced on the power sector. This consideration is fueled by the fact that the Congress has received several recommendations to adopt such systems. Notably, the success and effectiveness of the cap and trade system is dependent on the model of marginal costs and benefits.

Marginal Costs of Cap and Trade Policy:

While global warming has continued to be a major problem, the realization if transparency regarding the costs and benefits of restricting greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly difficult because of the completely huge differences in estimates of the effect of emissions control. As part of examining the marginal costs of cap and trade policy within the economy, it's important to understand how the program works.

Generally, a cap and trade system may require a decision to cap greenhouse gas emissions made at a particular level. During this process, allowances are built to permit companies to emit specific amounts of greenhouse gases ("Costs, Benefits, and a Roadmap," 2010). Therefore, without the allowance, a company is prohibited from emitting greenhouse gases. On the contrary, companies that emit less greenhouse gases than their allowances can sell these allowances to other firms. In this case, the total quantity of allowances created at the specific level equals the overall cap on emissions.

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As required by the cap and trade policy within the economy, American firms must have a license for every ton of greenhouse gases they emit. Since these licenses or permits are tradable, companies can buy from and sell them to others. The Congress is considering adopting a cap and trade policy since it will help the federal control to control the total quantity of greenhouse gases emitted. The limits on the overall quantity of greenhouse gases emitted can also be achieved through limit the number of these permits.

The marginal costs of cap and trade policy within the economy arises from two basic sources. First, the cost of this system emanates from the requirement for companies to buy the allowances for greenhouse gas emissions. Secondly, these costs are attributed to the need for firms to adopt new technologies to confine greenhouse gases emissions or sources of energy that emit less because of the restrictions on the overall level of emissions.

Generally, the marginal costs of a cap and trade policy within the economy is the price companies have to pay for the allowances or for emissions of greenhouse gases. This contributes to an overall economic cost where the price of limiting the emissions is established against the environmental benefits, which contributes to a distributional effect. Moreover, the emissions permit through this policy implies that the allowances command a market price while their value goes to someone (Krugman, 2009). A growing fraction of this value would be obtained by the government through auctions that are used to lessen or prevent increases in other taxes that are recycled to consumers. The rest of the costs would be passed on to industry though the biggest portion would go to customers because the major recipients would be regulated utilities.

The main principle behind the cap and trade policy within the economy is to monetize the social costs of greenhouse gases emissions and add them to the company's market costs. Social costs….....

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