Fair Deal for Consumers or Free Ride for Polluters:

The Case for Auctioning Pollution Permits in the Western Climate Initiative

by Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Frontier Group; Jeremiah Baumann, Environment Oregon Research & Policy Center; Rob Sargent, Environment America Research & Policy Center; Bernadette Del Chiaro, Environment California Research & Policy Center

Executive Summary

As Western states consider plans to reduce global warming pollution, a key question is whether the region will give away emission allowances created in any “cap-and-trade” program for reducing global warming pollution or sell them in an auction. Fair Deal for Consumers or Free Ride for Polluters? lays out the case for auctioning allowances in any Western global warming cap-and-trade system, documenting the economic and environmental benefits of auctions. (September 2008)

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