Pollution Taxes that begin charging with the first gram of poison emitted are a vastly superior way of moving toward sustainability that the polution cap and trade pollution allowances system.
The recent Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (REGGI) is to be commended in that it challenges the Bush administration do nothing Empire of Oil stance.
But REGGI is a good example of the folly of attempting to deal with polution on the margin and allowing pollution as usual to be permitted for free.
Tax, Don't Trade Pollution
by
Roy Morrison
The Steelers in the NFL playoffs against the Bengals called their trick play Fake 38 Direct Throwback. My son Sam and I call ours Chicago Lateral 2 Yellow. There's a pitch to the end who throws a lateral across the field to the quarterback who fires to the streaking end. TD.
Sometimes there's a correspondence between your backyard and the bigs, pro football or sandlot, an e-mail across town or to a friend's son serving in Iraq.
Then there are things that just aren't quite right. A brand new pickup from Public Service Company pulls up to read the meter. If I can send e-mail and data around the world, why can't my electric meter be another smart control node of a 21st century network?
And I drive into Concord on I-89 while a huge plume of sulfurous smoke pours from the Public Service Company coal fired power plant in Bow, N.H. and a brown mist heads south toward Manchester along the Merrimack . Why are we told that the coal burned in Bow meets all environmental regulations and is a money saving bargain as if its toxic mercury and particulate emissions and climate changing carbon dioxide are without costs?
For us to be both prosperous and healthy in the 21st century, we must get the prices right. It's time to let our market system work. It's time for poison power to charge its true costs and not have the rest of us be forced to pay its way.
By taxing polluters from the first gram of toxins and harmful emissions we would decisively help put sustainable power on a fair and even footing with poison power. The market, not regulators, if we get the prices right, can take care of much of the pollution problem not just at Bow's Merrimack Station, but with sustainability in general.
The current regulatory system that allows a set amount of pollution without charge is fundamentally flawed. To permit "free" pollution is to pollute not only the air and water, but also the marketplace.
Poison is regulated only on the margin. Polluters only pay for exceeding their free poison allowance.
This is the basic problem behind the admirable Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative pollution cap and trade system adopted by Northeast Governors attempting to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that drive global climatic change. The governors are to be applauded for their initiative in the face of Bush administration intransigence.
Slashing carbon dioxide emissions is essential. But the modest RGGI plan, which will most strongly impact coal plants such as Merrimack Station, is already running into trouble. Massachusetts and Rhode Island have pulled out.
Some businesses worry about further increases in electric rates in a year where electric prices have soared after Katrina. Public Service Company and other powerful polluters who want to keep operating coal plants as a "bargain" for ratepayers are less than enthusiastic.
Pollution taxes, not the sale of artificial pollution allowances ultimately are the way to solve our problems. Environmentally, if we had State sales taxes on emissions from electricity from the first gram, we would help the market send signals for sustainability. The more polluting the power, the higher the price. Buy cheap. Save the planet.
Economically, the income from the pollution taxes should all be recycled as rebates or efficiency retrofit grants to businesses and to low income people. The tax would help our businesses be competitive, protect the health of our kids, help low-income people to pay their bills, and advance prosperity and sustainability.
Pollution taxes are the way forward.
This is the concept. Next, I'll provide details.
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Roy Morrison is an energy consultant and writer. His next book, forthcoming, is Eco-Civilization 2140.His website is www.rmaenergy.net
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Fact Check
Mercury Emissions and Other pollutants from Merrimack Station
http://www.clf.org/...
CLF to Sue Merrimack Station
Seeks Reductions in Toxic Mercury Emissions
Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, a coal-fired power plant operated by Public Service Company of New Hampshire.is responsible for spewing more than 120 pounds of highly toxic mercury per year into the surrounding air and water bodies, including the Merrimack River. A single teaspoon of Mercury is enough to poison an entire lake, rendering all fish unsafe to eat. The 120 pounds mercury emitted each year by Merrimack Station are enough to poison 60,000,000 pounds of fish.
Merrimack Station power plant was built before the Clean Air Act went into effect, and remains the single largest source of air pollution in the area, releasing sulfur, nitrous oxides, particulates, and a number of toxic and carcinogenic substances in addition to Mercury.
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Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI),
http://www.nrdc.org/...
NORTHEAST GOVERNORS SIGN LANDMARK GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION PACT
Bipartisan Emissions Accord is National Model; Has Strong Business, Public Support
NEW YORK (December 20, 2005) -- Governors of seven Northeast states today unveiled a pioneering bipartisan accord that will cut heat-trapping global warming emissions from the region's power plants and create new investment in cleaner, more efficient energy technology. Along with new pollution limits, the plan will use a market-based strategy that rewards smart companies for outperforming the new pollution limits and lowers overall compliance costs.
Under careful development for more than two years, the accord includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and five Canadian provinces have been close observers in the process, and states including California, Oregon and New Mexico have all announced plans to pursue a similar approach.
Known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the accord takes effect in 2009, and will reduce carbon dioxide pollution to a level 10 percent below current emissions by 2019. The policy is expected to lower utility bills by helping consumers and businesses use energy more efficiently. It will also give industry in the Northeast a competitive edge as national global warming pollution limits take shape.
Business Backing
Leading companies operating in the region including Bank of America, Staples, Keyspan, National Grid, Pfizer, Entergy, and the association of large energy users called The Energy Consortium have all backed the idea. Resistance came mainly from the owners of large coal-fired power plants who will now be required to clean up their emissions, or finance somebody else who can.
Market-Based Strategy Unleashes Innovation
Under RGGI each state will have its own emissions limit based on an overall regional objective, and will regulate only the power plants located within its boundaries. Companies that find ways to reduce pollution cheaply will need fewer pollution permits and can sell excess "allowances" at a profit to companies that can't - an incentive structure that rewards rapid innovation while cutting overall costs for everyone.
New York State as CO2 example:
Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants in New York State in 2000: 69,809,350 tons (www.rggi.org)
Rate of emissions of CO2 from a wind turbine : 0
Share of regional* CO2 emissions from the top 10 polluting plants in the region: 1/3rd (More Heat than Light, Frontier Group, et al., released July 2005)
Number of the top ten polluting plants in the region located in New York State2: 6
(*The northeastern states including DE, NJ, NY, all the New England States.)