Who Owns The Sky?
We All Do -- And Polluters Should Pay Us For Dumping There
by Ann Hancock
The "Sky Trust" is a free-market approach to reducing air pollution
that has an interesting dividend: annual payments to all U.S. citizens.
Such 'sky rent' could put a $1,000 check in your pocket each year.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=4973
TOMPAINE.com -
Who Owns The Sky?
We All Do -- And Polluters Should Pay Us For Dumping There
Ann Hancock is a sustainability educator who lives in Sonoma County,
north of San Francisco.
Steven Rosenfeld produced this piece.
The White House doesn't need Enron to show its true loyalties on
energy. Whatever's best for energy companies' profits suits their
definition of public policy. How else to explain the recent Bush
proposal rolling back clean air standards by 30 years? Or its
announcement that new or expanding power plants needn't install the
latest anti-air pollution devices? It's payback time for Bush's
energy friends and funders, plain and simple.
Such favoritism is bad from an environmental perspective. It's also
bad economics. But it is possible to reduce air pollution using the
marketplace. It is possible for private companies to follow their
profit-making instincts and still make money while reducing global
warming emissions. How is that, you might ask? It's all laid out in a
brilliant book by Peter Barnes titled Who Owns The Sky, describing an
idea called the Sky Trust.
Who owns the sky? The answer is obvious. It's everybody. In public
policy terms, it's called "public trust," based on a legal doctrine
that declares that the state holds certain resources in trust for its
citizens -- like national parks. With this as a starting point,
Barnes, the founder of Working Assets, suggests that we consider
carbon emissions just like any other commodity. Polluters such as
power plants would pay to discharge into the sky, similar to the
effective system now used to limit U.S. sulfur emissions. Polluters
could use alternative technologies and pay less, or not at all. And
where would the money go that's been collected? Into an account
that's returned to citizens, the Sky Trust.
This notion is not far-fetched. In Alaska, where oil companies have
been drilling on state and federal lands -- public lands -- a similar
dividend accrues to residents. Last year the Alaska Permanent Fund
paid citizens about $2,000 each. What Alaskans do with oil, Americans
can do with sky. Annual sky rent could equal about $386 billion,
according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, enough for
each American to receive a $1,000 check every year.
Congressional analysts like the Sky Trust idea, too. The
Congressional Budget Office studied various approaches for reducing
greenhouse gases, and concluded that the Sky Trust's cap-and-trade
approach is the best. Every year Congress would establish a limit on
the amount of allowable greenhouse gas, and the Sky Trust would
auction off the rights to pollute. As the allowable emissions were
gradually reduced, the price would go up, and so would each
American's annual dividend.
And just in case anyone needs reminding, news about climate change is
very troubling. Last decade was the warmest on record. Sea levels
rose about 8 to 12 inches during the last century, recently forcing
thousands of residents of Tuvalu, a tiny spot in the Pacific Ocean,
to leave their island home. To avert the worst of global warming,
predominant scientific opinion says that we must reduce greenhouse
gas emissions worldwide by at least 60 percent. Compare this figure
with the 5.2 percent cut called for in the Kyoto Treaty signed two
months ago by 180 nations, every major nation except the United
States. Clearly, a new approach is badly needed.
Barnes is setting up a turnkey Sky Trust complete with board of
directors, ready for the public, Congress, and the President to
implement. All Congress must do is pass a law creating the Sky Trust.
America would curb its fossil fuel appetite. Those who use the most
would pay, and those who use the least would be rewarded. Our
children's children would inherit a habitable Earth. The Sky Trust
reflects American capitalism at its finest.
To learn more, and to get a free, non-transferable Certificate of
Ownership representing your share of sky, visit www.skyowners.org.
Published: Jan 14 2002
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