Abstract

VEGA RUIZ, Ricardo. The Origin of Emissions Markets. The Commercialization Of Environmental Regulation for Air Pollutants in the United States. Norteamérica [online]. 2021, vol.16, n.2, pp.9-34.  Epub Apr 04, 2022. ISSN 2448-7228.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cisan.24487228e.2021.2.473.

This article describes the birth of air pollutant regulation and its transformation, which, formerly under state control, moved on to a regime based on market instruments. The author shows the gradual commercialization of the approach to air pollution problems, whose origins can be traced to the United States, summarized in three different historic moments: the Emission Trading Program (1982), the Average between Refineries (1985), and the Acid Rain Program (1995). These experiments, in a framework of the command and control environmental regulatory regime, led to the creation of the first atmospheric contaminant emissions market in world history and opened up the road to the new “cap and trade” environmental regulatory regime.

Keywords : emissions market; cap and trade; command and control; environmental policy.

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