Cap and trade worked in past

Guest editorial: Cap and trade worked in past
By Jennifer Rennicks

It's rare that we can accomplish several tasks with a single action, and we should welcome the opportunity to do so. Today we have that opportunity. Setting a firm limit and putting a price on pollution from our tailpipes and smokestacks will drive clean technology innovation, strengthen America's role as a green-tech leader, and protect Tennessee's treasured places. The way to achieve all of this is through a policy known as cap and trade.

Cap-and-trade programs harness market forces to achieve cost-effective, and often innovative, environmental protection. By establishing a price for pollution, a cap provides an incentive for businesses to reduce pollution and operating costs by tapping one of America's greatest assets — entrepreneurial creativity.

History confirms that cap and trade works because we successfully used it to solve the problem of acid rain in the 1990s. Utilities achieved 100 percent compliance in sulfur dioxide reductions through the U.S. Acid Rain Program with greater cost efficiency than command and control programs typically realize. The Acid Rain Program proved that cap and trade rewards innovation while stimulating the economy.

Today the rumor mill warns that a cap-and-trade program will cost too much for our families and businesses as the price of needed products increases. The truth about this tall tale is that every reliable study from nonpartisan government agencies shows that the average family would pay the price of a postage stamp per day. In fact, if implemented with strong clean energy provisions for renewable energy and energy efficiency, a comprehensive program could meet our pollution-reducing goals while also spurring the investments and innovation needed to create hundreds of millions of jobs and result in net savings to consumers and businesses.

U.S. can lead or follow

Many business leaders understand the economic benefits of cap and trade and clean energy legislation. Just this week, executives from 150 companies in 30 states met with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and members of Congress in a show of support for the proposed Senate legislation to establish a cap-and-trade program. The business leaders noted that we are at the beginning of a new industrial revolution. Whether the United States takes a leading role or sits back and watches other nations pass us by is up to Congress. Business leaders know that if we pass up this opportunity, we might not be able to catch up.

Last month, The New York Times reported that China is already making green from clean: it will soon be home to the world's largest solar research facility. As Thomas Friedman put it, "If you like importing oil from Saudi Arabia, you're going to love importing solar panels from China." Selling our economic future

abroad isn't inevitable, but that's where our current path of inaction will lead.

The Volunteer State is already seeing the benefits of leading this new industrial revolution as
German-based Wacker Chemie and the Hemlock Semiconductor Group both announced plans to build
billion-dollar solar manufacturing facilities in Tennessee. New industry, new jobs and new clean energy
resulting from cap-and-trade legislation can renew our economy. Old technology and old dirty energy
simply won't get us there. The time is now to cap our pollution and trade dirty energy for a high-tech
clean energy industry.