Michael Giberson
From Environmental Capital, reports that selling all greenhouse gas emission permits under a cap-and-trade scheme may not be politically attractive:
Europe already saw what happened when it gave away emissions permits—utilities gobbled up more than 100 billion euros in windfall profits.
The pain for the consumer—i.e., the voter–will be the same whether the permits are sold or given away.
Writer Keith Johnson notes that “for the overall emissions-targets to work, prices would have to rise more in other parts of the economy to compensate” (if, that is, giving permits to utilities serves to limit power price increases).
Billions in profits for companies well represented in D.C. versus non-transparent price increases in unspecified other industries? I guess we can work out the political calculus easy enough.
And for readers who think this is a reason to prefer a carbon tax…, well, I’m not convinced that lobbyists or their congressional aides would keep their hands off the tax code, either.