Environmental Defense Fund leader says the invisible hand can be clean

Remember acid rain? Rain falling through polluted air in the US northeast (as well as significant parts of Europe) was reaching the ground with such a high acid content that it polluted lakes and rivers and yellowed swaths of forests. But currently acid rain seems to be a non-issue. Why? Is it because CO2 emissions and global warming have distracted our ADD media from what is an ongoing/escalating problem? Not according to an interview in this month’s Wired magazine with Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, and, according to Wired, “revered in Silicon Valley for championing a capitalist approach to clean energy.”

Here’s how Krupp describes market forces were able to put the brakes on acid rain: “In 1992, the EDF worked with Bush Sr. to craft a market system to reduce acid rain. It spurred a revolution in sulfur dioxide scrubbing technologies. The costs were projected at up to $2,000 a ton, but after 10 years they were down to about $100 a ton and emissions were slashed by 50 percent. In 2005, George W. Bush signed off on an additional 70 percent cut. Why? The costs proved so low, the political controversy had disappeared. I suspect the same thing can happen with a cap on global warming emissions once the incentives are right.”

Krupp suggests the incentives be in the form of a legal limit that requires reductions of at least 20 percent from current levels by 2020, going up to 80 percent by 2050. And he’s not concerned about emerging economies such as China’s and India’s negating our gains, because they will inevitable adopt caps too, and the US will gain a competitive advantage by going first. He says, “The real question is, do we want to import clean tech from Germany, Japan, and China or export it to the rest of the world?”

Adam Smith, who wrote about the “invisible hand” of a capitalistic, free market would be proud.