The alternative framework to cap and trade, which doesn’t involve market mysticism, is: cap, collect, and invest

We need a price mechanism – if its free then no one is going to care about it.

Cap and trade is essentially allowing pollution permits.Allow a certain “limit”, and then allow the bigger polluters to just trade for their right to pollute more.

What we really need is:
1. reductions right away
2. collect money from the polluters to the tune of the costs
3. invest in our communities

STRONG CAP: the pollution needs to stop
COLLECT: polluters have been getting subsidies and let off the hook for years. Now they need to pay.
INVEST: in vulnerable, low-income communities and communities of color, in order to lift people out of poverty and promote self-determination.

Anyway. Thats an alternative way to open up the convo on emissions.

hope that helps a bit. see you soon!

As the Wall Street Journal put it in March, 2007, emissions trading “would make money for some very large corporations, but don’t believe for a minute that this charade would do much about global warming.” The Journal called the carbon trade “old-fashioned … making money by gaming the regulatory process.”