This Day in History: 1991-12-05

Emissions trading The US EPA issues rules authorizing pollution credits for sulfur and nitrogen emissions on this day in 1991. Emissions trading is new — before this, all polluters had to reduce pollution across the board, and according to Republicans, this created problems in the market. So a Republican-suggested method for controlling acid rain emissions was adopted and it worked.

On this same day In 2007 a bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions through a cap-and-trade system passes out of committee in the U.S. Senate. Sponsored by Republican John Warner of Virginia and Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the measure gets strong Democratic support, but fails to get the needed 60 votes to avoid filibuster. Senators Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Larry Craig of Idaho offer 150 amendments to the bill in order to sidetrack it. In 2010 Congress would reject a similar plan for carbon emissions called “cap and trade.”