Apples for Oranges: The Role of Currencies in Environmental Trading Markets

December 2001
Citation:
31
ELR 11438
Issue
12
Author
James Salzman and J.B. Ruhl

Introduction

Two major, integrally related trends define U.S. environmental law at the millennium. The first trend is to bring presently unregulated risks under the control of the regulatory system. The second trend . . . is toward bigger bubbles—toward broader and broader trading among pollutants and even among various types of risk reduction . . . .1

Picture a playground where children trade environmental protection like baseball cards. The front sides bear slick images of endangered species, drops of acid rain, and vanishing habitats. The flip sides show all the statistics—population remaining, acreage consumed, who benefits from the wetlands, who is harmed by the pollution. And the kids sit huddled in an excited circle, busily swapping cards. To snag Jamie's prized cattail wetlands, Ben must part with his cherished saltwater marsh.

James Salzman is a Professor at the Washington College of Law at American University. J.B. Ruhl is a Professor at the Florida State University School of Law. Parts of this Article were published in the December 2000, issue of the Stanford Law Review and are republished with permission. This Article has been edited by the Environmental Law Reporter's staff. The empirical research for this Article was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program grant R82612-01. Because this Article has not been subjected to any EPA review and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency, no official endorsement should be inferred.

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Apples for Oranges: The Role of Currencies in Environmental Trading Markets

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