The Oil Drum

23 comments on Econbrowser: MC on gas taxes and the president's plan...

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AlanfromBigEasy on February 22, 2006 - 8:46am

Why is international trading stupid ? Seems like the best way to economically reduce carbon emissions. There is an economic/political limit to the pain that reducing carbon causes. Reducing the "pain" and maximizing the carbon reduced seems like a good thing !

GW does not cae whether CO2 comes from Germnay or France, or Ireland or Iceland.

A single example, the Icelandic Gvo't subsizied draining bogs in the 1960s & 1970s. Turns out that these bogs oxidizing is their biggest source of artifical carbon (they would be wealthy beyond belief from carbon credits if they could figure out how to reduce volcanoc emissions). There is so "push" to water these bogs again except for carbon credits (still pending if they qualify).

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LevinK on February 24, 2006 - 12:22am

It is as stupid as closing US coal power plants, only to find them moving to China where they power the industries we closed here.

International trading of quotas is providing developed countries a very cheap and convenient way to dump all their carbon emissions on 3rd world countries. It also gives another reason for developed countries not to want the developing ones to have their own industry etc.

I would welcome carbon trading within a country, but this one is doing more harm than good.

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Magnus Redin on February 24, 2006 - 6:31am

I hear the same argument in Sweden but it is often complemented with our heavy industries being the most enviromental friendly there is so there will be no global enviromental benefit if they move or get worse carbon restrictions then in other countries and so on.

But it might be as for farming where every country have the worlds best food. Are US heavy industries world leaders in efficiency and low emissions?

Regarding jobs moving around it hurts me if they move from my country but I am not important for the world. On a global level it makes sense if the richest countries get lazier and poorer and have to scale down their energy use and so on and the poor countries work harder and get richer. The global market is an efficient and in some ways fair mechanism for this.

I dont deserve to be rich simpley from existing, wonder how I can work more efficiently to become rich? It probably have to be some kind of team work.