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Cap and dividend is a simple, market-based way to reduce CO2 emissions without reducing household incomes. It caps fossil fuel supplies, makes polluters pay, and returns the revenue to everyone equally. 
1. It gets the job done. |
LATEST NEWSRep. Van Hollen Unveils Cap and Dividend Bill - State Groups Offer Their PraiseCongressman Chris Van Hollen introduced groundbreaking climate legislation on April 1, 2009. 11 state environmental groups released a joint statement in support of The Cap and Dividend Act of 2009. Van Hollen Climate Bill To Feature “Cap and Dividend”In a sign that the “cap-and-dividend” approach to tackling climate change may be gathering steam, Rep. Chris Van Hollen announced Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation soon that would cap carbon emissions, require all emission allowances to be sold at auction and distribute at least 90 percent of the auction revenues to consumers in the form of monthly dividend checks.
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Carbon Capping:
Cap and Dividend
By Peter Barnes
America’s the electric utilities are waging a no-holds-barred campaign to get 40% of carbon emission permits allocated free to local distribution companies and merchant coal generators. They argue that free allocation will protect consumers better than auctions and cash back. Just give us free permits, they say, and we’ll pass through the savings to our customers.
Sounds appealing. But beware: this is not what happened in Europe. There, utilities got free permits and raised rates anyway, earning billions in windfall profits. See the study by the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands , which found that a signifi¬cant part of the value of freely allocated pollution permits resulted in higher electricity prices for consumers and windfall profits for power producers.