The Marshall Plan for Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Our good friends over at the George C. Marshall Institute have a new study out on cap and trade by economist Michael Canes. And yes, as you might have guessed, he’s not a fan:

The Marshall Institute released its new study, Cap & Trade is the Wrong Policy to Curb Greenhouse Gasses for the United States, authored by Dr. Michael Canes. Dr. Canes analyzes the burdens of implementing a Cap and Trade (C&T) system and concludes that strengthening a goals-based approach presents a more attractive policy option.

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Dr. Canes argues that implementation of a GHG Cap and Trade system in the U.S. would be a serious policy mistake: it would impose high costs on the economy; result in volatile prices for allowances and fossil fuels; involve government creation of wealth, creating vast opportunities for “rent-seeking,” influence peddling and corruption; and require extensive and expensive worldwide monitoring.

Dr. Canes, you had me at “goals-based approach”. Read the whole thing in PDF here.