Collect Them All! "Emissions Trading" Reaches the Home Investor

Did you know that for $5--less than the price of a movie ticket--you could formally retire a ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the main cause of global warming? Or, if you prefer, $60 buys a ton of sulfur dioxide (SO2), the culprit in acid rain, preventing it from ever being emitted. It's all part of an emerging consumer market for emissions, or "pollution," trading, once the exclusive province of large energy corporations. In its classic form, emissions trading involves a low-emissions company selling its "right to pollute" to another firm that would otherwise exceed its federal quota.

© Elizabeth Prager

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