I must tell you that we have heard much of this before in less sophisticated form. We heard it in 1970 and again in 1977. We heard it repeatedly in the 1980s. It is the same message today and it boils down to this: Impose the cost of pollution on people who breathe, so the people who pollute can avoid the cost of control. I think that is backwards. What must life be like for that asthmatic child when the very air can make her a shut-in and even threaten her life? What does it cost the rest of us to turn our backs on that child when the solution to her problem is known? The late Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D­Me.) Author of the Clean Air and Water Acts November 14, 1995

The acid rain trading program embodied in Title IV of the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1990 has been widely applauded, but on few occasions, if any, has it been critically analyzed to determine its true impacts on cost, innovation, and, most especially, the achievement of its stated objectives. That is the purpose of this examination. The acid rain trading program requires electricity-generating facilities in the United States to gradually reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) using what is often referred to as a "cap-and-trade" approach. The law establishes a "cap," or national limit on aggregate utility emissions of SO2. This is at a level said, incorrectly, to be 10 million tons below 1980 emissions.