The 1990 Acid Rain Program is a market-based initiative taken by the EPA in an effort to reduce overall atmospheric levels of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x), which cause acid rain. The program is an implementation of an emissions trading (cap-and-trade) initiative that targets coal-burning power plants, allowing them to buy and sell emission permits (called “allowances”) according to individual needs and costs. The ARP was the first cap-and-trade program of its kind in the U.S.

The 101^st Congress crafted and passed the ARP legislation during the first two years of the Republican administration of U.S. President George H. W. Bush (with further amendments in 1995 & 2000).

Overall, the Program’s cap-and-trade system has been immensely successful in achieving its goals. Since the 1990s, SO₂ emissions have dropped 40%, and according to the Pacific Research Institute, acid rain levels have dropped 65% since 1976 (when monitoring first began). Furthermore, the EPA estimates that by 2010, the overall costs of complying with the program for businesses and consumers will be $1 billion to $2 billion a year, only one fourth of what was originally predicted.

But CO₂ (Carbon Dioxide) is an entirely different beast. Anytime anything is burned, CO₂ is created. It is a fact of nature and it cannot be ‘reduced’ through technology. Even natural gas, the lowest CO₂ creating fossil fuel, produces over 50% of the CO₂ produced by coal – but it is 4 times more expensive. And as supplies get scarcer, gas will only go higher. As more and more power plants reduce coal consumption, coal gets cheaper. It’s an economic irony that cannot be completely eliminated.

By and large the “clean coal” initiative has met only with disaster. No matter how effective the costly ‘scrubbers’ that sequester CO₂, they cannot eliminate it – they can only ‘capture’ it. And the quantities that they capture are extremely difficult to store as bio-hazard waste products. The need for air-tight CO₂ ‘storage’ is many times that of nuclear waste storage. So while many people, including President Obama, are under the impression that there is a “Clean Coal” alternative, the technology simply does not support the notion. Only the coal lobbyists believe ‘clean coal’ is a reality. No one that understands the science and the technology does, however.

This does not mean that there is not a solution somewhere on the horizon. There is promising research around biomass solutions (like algae masses that eat CO₂ and emit oxygen) and other technologies – but the scalability is not even close yet. More research may be the key – but we are fooling ourselves if we think ‘clean coal’ is just a matter of will, effort and money. It is much more than that.

Once again the government is looking hard and long at a cap-and-trade initiative to attack the CO₂ and other greenhouse emissions. And the Republicans – in true allegiance to the coal industry lobby – are fighting it tooth and nail.

In any event, if we are going to truly find a ‘clean coal’ alternative it will only be when we have the money and the research resources to put to the task. A cap-and-trade initiative for greenhouse gases will provide that stimulus to the industry and the companies that can develop solutions. While its success may not be as dramatic or as quick as the SO₂ and NO_x reductions in the Acid Rain legislation, it will take us in the right direction much faster than any reasonable alternative.

JB

Cappiello, D. (2009). Capitol power plant dims clean energy hopes, Associated Press, Retrieved March 1, 2009, from: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_POWER_PLANT?SITE=OKOKL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

EDF (2007). The Cap and Trade Success Story, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Retrieved March 1, 2009, from: http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1085

Fehrenbacher, K. (2008). Former Energy Secretaries: Cap and Trade Is Bad for Business, earth2tech.com, Retrieved March 1, 2009, from: http://earth2tech.com/2008/11/12/former-energy-secretaries-cap-and-trade-is-bad-for-business/

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