Poop Credits, Land Credits — Maybe
Well over a year ago I attended a solar conference in Long Beach, where I found myself in a carbon credit breakout session.
What began as an intelligent discussion on the benefits of cap-and-trade quickly turned extremely futuristic. . . or so I thought.
Given the current climate policy landscape for cap-and-trade, what was discussed during the second part of that panel may be closer than I thought.
I’m talking about a “cap-and-trade” system to solve other difficult environmental problems.
It’s best understood through an example, so I’ll use my home state of Maryland.
Situated around the Chesapeake Bay are hundreds of chicken farms. It’s a major operation — you can often see Tyson and Perdue tractor trailers loaded with chickens on local highways.
But all that agricultural business creates serious problems for the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Millions of tons of chicken poop need to be disposed of, and some of it always ends up in the watershed, stoking pollution and unwanted aquatic vegetation growth.
Farms are already forced to buy permits to regulate the chicken poop so, if you think about it, there’s already a monetary system of checks in place. A market-based system isn’t that much of stretch.
What was discussed at that conference–and where I think we’re headed–is a poop-and-trade system, if you will, in which farms are issued a cap on the amount of chicken poop they can dispose of, and must purchase credits at market price for the right to dispose more.
I've been brainstorming about how to apply the cap-and-trade approach outside of strictly carbon emissions as well. Any more ideas besides your two examples here? I'm not sure how easily your poop-and-trade proposition could be prevented from massive manipulation.
Looks like we'll be getting our chicken from China now, at least those of us who can still afford food.