Economic impact
Pros
Creates new market
The acid rain program boosts the economy. It crates a new market which allow firms to spend money to buy allowances from other firms. If a firm ends up having surplus permits, it may sell them to other firms. If a firm is short on permits, it can either buy permits from other firms or borrow from forward allocations, meaning that they can borrow part of their allowed permits for the next period. Cap and trade on wastewater pollution provides a good amount of flexibility by creating a market for water pollution and encouraging a reduction of it.
As seen from the chart above, the ARP created a new market. In 2007, it has encouraged 4,700 transactions and created a $5.1 billion SO2 market. 54 percent of the allowances transferred happened between firms that didn’t have prior trading interactions.
Adds flexibility
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The created market also adds flexibility of firms. The trading part increases the available capital to make reductions, which also encourages companies to cut pollution faster and rewards innovation. It also let firms find the cheaper way to cut down pollution. For example, during a cap-and-trade effort to combat acid rain, electric utilities developed new and cheaper ways of cutting emissions, figuring out ways to burn lower-sulfur coal.
Benefits human health
The nation benefits from this program in the aspect of human health. The acid rain program improve the air quality, which directly improve human health. And the benefits are estimated to be in the range of $170 billion to $430 billion in 2010 alone. Compare with the cost of the program which is $3 billion, the program is valuable.
Cons
Decreases coal industry