<The Trouble With Energy - Part 4 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: June 30, 2009>
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113 comments on DrumBeat: June 29, 2009

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dohboi on June 29, 2009 - 9:34am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

My apologies. I meant use for this purpose--to control CO2 emissions. This has not been successful in Europe.

Piked at random from the first batch that came up on a google search of "cap and trade Europe" all of which, whether from left or right, conclude that it hasn't worked:
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/european-summer-school-for-...

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Wharf Rat on June 29, 2009 - 9:51am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You must have missed this one.
Europe poised to meet Kyoto target: European Trading System a success?
Posted 1:10 PM on 1 Jun 2009
by Joseph Romm

Europe made a major commitment under the Kyoto protocol that U.S. conservatives have been telling us for years they would never achieve. It now seems clear Europeans will meet their commitment under the terms of the protocol. It will become increasingly difficult for those who don’t want a U.S. cap-and-trade system to point to the European Trading System ETS) as an obvious failure....
...And just two weeks ago, the European Commission reported that a subset of total EU GHG emissions, the carbon dioxide emissions traded in the European Trading System (ETS), dropped sharply in 2008:

Emissions of greenhouse gases from EU businesses participating in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) fell 3.06 % in 2008 compared with a year earlier, according to the information provided by Member State registries. With the 6.5% reduction in emission allowances that the Commission has secured for the second trading period, the EU ETS really started to make a difference to emissions in 2008. Last year marked the beginning of the second trading period of the EU ETS, which runs from 2008 to 2012.
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: “The 3 per cent reduction was partly due to businesses taking measures to cut their emissions in response to the strong carbon price that prevailed until the economic downturn started. It confirms that the EU has a well functioning trading system, with a robust cap, a clear price signal and a liquid market, which is helping us to cut emissions cost-effectively. This should encourage other countries in their efforts to set up comparable domestic cap-and-trade systems, which we would like to see linked up with the EU ETS to create a stronger international carbon market.”
http://www.grist.org/article/europe-poised-to-meet-kyoto-target-does-thi...

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Wharf Rat on June 29, 2009 - 10:08am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

If the permits to pollute aren't too expensive, I might buy a few and compost them.

Students look to buy air pollution credits
Monday, January 27, 2003, 10:27 AM
By Matt Kelley
Students at a southeast Iowa college are trying to prevent air pollution by raising money to buy what are called pollution permits. Maria Chookolingo, a sophomore at Maharishi University of Management, says the government-issued permits allow businesses to emit a certain limited quantity of pollution into the environment. She says businesses that modernize don't need the permits and sell them. Chookolingo says they're going through a private, non-profit environmental organization called the Clean Air Conservancy. She says they "represent us at these auctions where the companies sell the permits and buy them for us, and retire them permanently so the companies are forced to find other methods." Chookolingo says students at the Fairfield institution raised about three-hundred dollars and have been able to buy and "retire" three permits so far, but they're not cheap. So far, the students have purchased two sulfur dioxide permits at 132-dollars each and one carbon dioxide permit for seven-dollars. Other permits, like nitrogen dioxide permits, run 15-hundred dollars each. Some consider carbon dioxide the main cause of global warming, while surfur dioxide is blamed for acid rain. Chookolingo, a 19-year-old from the island nation Trinidad, says the environmental effort was sparked by one of her instructors who explained what happened. The Clean Air Conservancy website claims an E-P-A report says stopping these pollutants from entering the atmosphere saves millions of dollars in costs to health care and the environment. For more information, surf to "www.cleanairconservancy.org".

http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=6C2A6BEF-59EA-4681-B7EF...

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Durandal on June 29, 2009 - 11:17am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I've seen similar practices done with licenses to sell/dispense alcohol being purchased by churches and other religious groups to prevent bars from opening up in the area. Rather odd, if you ask me in regards to the alcohol permits.

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113 comments on DrumBeat: June 29, 2009

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