U.S. PIRG today announced the release of “Cleaner, Cheaper, Smarter”, a report which makes the case that any greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade program have a full auction of emissions credits.
In a supporting statement, numerous environmental and progressive organizations and individuals state:
It is critical that any cap-and-trade program require the auctioning of pollution allowances, rather than giving those allowances away for free to polluters.
By auctioning pollution allowances, we affirm that no one has a “right” to pollute. Instead, we claim the atmosphere as a common resource, to be managed for the benefit of the public, which no polluter may foul without due compensation.
By auctioning pollution allowances, we reduce the societal cost of achieving emission reductions, enabling America to achieve its climate protection goals with less disruption to our economy and the lives of individual Americans.
And by auctioning pollution allowances, we prevent the accumulation of billions of dollars in windfall profits by polluters, and instead put those revenues to work on behalf of the public. Allowance revenues can support efforts to transform America into a clean energy economy and to provide a regular dividend or rebate to American consumers.
We call on state and federal lawmakers to limit global warming emissions to the levels demanded by the science and to auction all pollution allowances in any cap-and-trade program.
The list of signatories is after the jump.
- Sierra Club
- Consumer Federation of America
- Oxfam America
- Campaign for America’s Future
- U.S.PIRG: Federation of State PIRGs
- MoveOn.org
- Clean Water Action
- Environmental Law & Policy Center
- Rainforest Action Network
- Friends of the Earth
- OMB Watch
- Greenpeace
- Institute for Local Self-Reliance
- The Regeneration Project / Interfaith Power & Light
- Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
- Public Citizen
- Step It Up 2007
- Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
- Conservation Law Foundation
- Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies
- Center for Tax and Budget Accountability
- Clean Air Watch
- Clean Power Campaign
- Community Environmental Council
- E3 Network: Economics for Equity and the Environment
- EcoEquity
- Focus the Nation
- Fresh Energy
- Climate Solutions
- Friends Committee on National Legislation
- Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin
- Massachusetts Climate Action Network
- Ohio Environmental Council
- Planning and Conservation League
- SUN DAY Campaign
- Plains Justice
- Valley Watch
- Center for a New American Dream
- Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation
- HKH Foundation
- Climate Protection Campaign
- Blanket the Globe
- and local PIRG affiliates
INDIVIDUALS (affiliation for identification purposes only)
- Robert Reich
- James K. Boyce
- George Lakoff
- James Gustave Speth
- William E. Spriggs, Ph.D.
- Billy Parish
- Martha Phillips
- Peter Barnes
- Allen L. White
- Juliet Schor
- Joe Nation
- William R. Freudenburg
- Pran R. Young
- Dave Olsen
- Jonathan Isham
- Sara J. Weinheimer
- Garrett Greuner
- Dean Baker
- Jonathan F P Rose
- Robert Perkowitz,
- William Bates
- Joshua Skov, MA, LEED AP
- Burns H Weston
- Gary Flomenhoft
- David Sassoon
- Edward Skloot
- Robin Hahnel, PhD
- Peter Dorman
- Juliette Anthony
- Rafael Aguilera
- Jonathan Isham
- Tracy Bach
- Rick Reed
- Ildiko Polony
- Lori A. Ehrlich