You’ve already given your opinion on whether you believe global warming is a major problem, but, for this post, you’re accepting that it’s a real problem and asking what would be an efficient way for governments to limit CO2 emissions. In particular, suppose that a particular emission level is considered safe. The question is, how to distribute that total amount.

I would have expected that you would support a market-driven mechanism for distributing this scarce resource. It would take a gifted central-planner to set and adjust the tax rate necessary to keep consumption of emission rights beneath the target threshold.

I agree that there’s a question of how to initially distribute these resources, but that’s always a problem in capitalism. The current proposal seems to be that those who are currently emitting be given the right to emit what they currently are. Sure, I’m a socialist. I’d love to see those emission rights taken from them and equally distributed among the entire population. We could do the same with ownership rights to factories next, but it’s not going to happen. According to standard, market-economic theory, it doesn’t matter how the resources are initially distributed, through market trading, they’ll become efficiently distributed. Initially distributing them in the way they currently are is a politically realistic way of getting the market system started. I’d prefer auctioning, but, if we’re going to accept a market system anyway, why not accept the market theory that says initial distributions don’t matter anyway?

I’d like to see cooler weather in the summer time.

OH, I changed my mind, let’s get rid of smog in LA and then if that is successful, change the sun’s energy.

Oh, I change my mind again, let’s define the term “carbon Sequestration”. It is a tax on producing energy, that will decrease the efficiency of energy production.

Or let our government handle the Global Warming problem politically, like they did in New Orleans after the hurricane. Surely if they (not us) can stop a hurricane, they can surely do something to help us increase our taxes so we can support their lifestyle.

Can anyone find a problem that can be fixed by Washington,DC, and increasing taxes?

Burt

I’d like to see cooler weather in the summer time.

OH, I changed my mind, let’s get rid of smog in LA and then if that is successful, change the sun’s energy.

Oh, I change my mind again, let’s define the term “carbon Sequestration”. It is a tax on producing energy, that will decrease the efficiency of energy production.

Or let our government handle the Global Warming problem politically, like they did in New Orleans after the hurricane. Surely if they (not us) can stop a hurricane, they can surely do something to help us increase our taxes so we can support their lifestyle.

Can anyone find a problem that can be fixed by Washington,DC, and increasing taxes?

Burt

I’d like to see cooler weather in the summer time.

OH, I changed my mind, let’s get rid of smog in LA and then if that is successful, change the sun’s energy.

Oh, I change my mind again, let’s define the term “carbon Sequestration”. It is a tax on producing energy, that will decrease the efficiency of energy production.

Or let our government handle the Global Warming problem politically, like they did in New Orleans after the hurricane. Surely if they (not us) can stop a hurricane, they can surely do something to help us increase our taxes so we can support their lifestyle.

Can anyone find a problem that can be fixed by Washington,DC, and increasing taxes?

Burt

I’d like to see cooler weather in the summer time.

OH, I changed my mind, let’s get rid of smog in LA and then if that is successful, change the sun’s energy.

Oh, I change my mind again, let’s define the term “carbon Sequestration”. It is a tax on producing energy, that will decrease the efficiency of energy production.

Or let our government handle the Global Warming problem politically, like they did in New Orleans after the hurricane. Surely if they (not us) can stop a hurricane, they can surely do something to help us increase our taxes so we can support their lifestyle.

Can anyone find a problem that can be fixed by Washington,DC, and increasing taxes?

Burt

#1 Make money.
#2 Clean up our pollution.

So if you can find a way to sell or trade on an individual basis, why not?

Citi-Capital is investing $50B over the next ten years in alternative energy projects…

I think the government should help get things rolling but at some point the gained efficiencies will make up the gap between coal nuclear vs. solar & wind and subsidies should go away.

Another good source.

http://classweb.gmu.edu/mkrauss/prop-liab.htm

Dig up “Another View of the Cathedral” by Calabresi and Melemed.

Also, look up some Coase (here’s a start: http://faculty.econ.northwestern.edu/faculty/witte/pf/handouts/coase.html.