Sulfur Allowance Trading and the Regional Clean Air Incentives Market: A Comparative Design Analysis of two Major Cap-and-Trade Permit Programs?

摘要: This paper investigates in detail the design parameters of two mostprominent US cap-and-trade permit program – EPA Sulfur AllowanceTrading Program and South Californian Regional Clean Air IncentivesMarket (RECLAIM). In contrast to expectations programs turn out be rather different several important parameter choices.Common elements emerge primarily existence an ambitious, quantifiedenvironmental target, mandatory use stringent emission monitoring methodsand stiff penalties for non-compliance, coexisting command-and-controlregulations, creation a competitive market structure, andsome distributional concessions initial allocation. Generalizing from these common features we find that provisions assurepolitical acceptance, functional interdependencies overlapping regulation are most influences on applied programs.