Reuters first to report 'cap and trade' will survive in part of US carbon legislation

Reuters broke the news on March 15 that compromise climate control legislation being developed in the U.S. Senate would use a cap and trade approach to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. A senator who declined to be identified gave the news to Reuters alone at a turning point in the climate change debate. While some senators had been saying for weeks that cap and trade was “dead,” we continued to write that it might be used in a more limited way: for the utility sector (instead of the economy-wide approach suggested by House legislation) and this story confirmed that. We met our goal to be first with what is arguably the most important part of the climate debate: whether pollution permits will be traded in a new financial market in the United States.