The federal Clean Power way gives each state the flexibility to exhaust its own ideas on how best to reduce greenhouse gases from the power sector. One proven,cost-effective approach is to exhaust market forces to drive innovation and efficiency.
It worked before to curb acid rain. It’s working now in California and the nine states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. And it can work again with the Clean Power way.
The options available to states go beyond creating or joining a cap-and-trade program or instituting a carbon tax. Pieces can be put in area, such as common definitions, and measurement and verification processes,so that states or companies could be in a position to trade within their state or across borders. Modest programs that allow companies to trade carbon credits could be explored.
In an op-ed published in The Hill, Anthony Earley, and CEO of California energy company PG&E,and C2ES President Bob Perciasepe urge states to give these options serious thought. Read The Hill op-ed.
Source: c2es.org