Comment & Debate
Transnational Institute, “Cap and trade is not the answer: an open letter”, January 31, 2007 – “Sulphur dioxide trading in the U.S., often touted as an unequivocal success and a model for carbon trading programs internationally, has had similar disproportionate impacts on poor communities and communities of color. It was their air quality that suffered in exchange for more “efficient” cuts in pollution elsewhere. Plants in Tennessee were allowed to spew tons more sulphur dioxide into the air than plants in the Northeast, choking the residents living near the plant with acid gases. Paint peeled off cars and local property values suffered as communities in the Northeast benefited.”