The Rise And Fall Of Cap And Trade To Fight Global Warming

Cap and trade is a market based mechanism that was favored by Republicans as a solution for a market failure.  That is, it provided a way to internalize a cost that producers passed on to society.  The internalization of that cost would raise the price of carbon emissions and reduce the use of high carbon energy.  This article describes the popularity of this market based approach and its demise.  It also argues that is a better approach to the problem than non-market based solutions.  Therefore, it is an approach that may make a come back.  That might be sensible but it would require that politicians, who have based their electoral outcomes on global warming denial, find another way to raise campaign contributions explain their conversion to their political base which has been sold on denial.