Emissions Trading in the U.S.: Experience, Lessons and Considerations for Greenhouse Gases

This report reviews the experience of six emissions trading programs with which one or more of the authors have considerable experience, including: the Lead Trading Program from the 1980s: the Acid Rain program for the electric industry: and the Northeast NOx  Budget trading program, which began operations in the late 1990s. Based on these experiences, the report identifies and discusses five general lessons concerning the design and implementation of emissions trading programs, and two considerations of particular relevance for GHG applications.