Market-based approaches to reducing pollution aren’t new. Perhaps the best known is the emissions trading program in the 1980s used to curtail acid rain.
The plan set a cap on total emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and allowed companies (mainly electric utilities) to trade emissions allowances. By creating economic incentives to reduce pollution, the program solved the acid rain problem, improved air quality and yielded benefits to human health.Now a market-based approach to reduce pollutants in water bodies, called water quality trading, is taking hold. It enables municipal wastewater treatment utilities and other NPDES permit holders to trade credits
