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To: Taikun who wrote (49160)	4/30/2004 8:34:14 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 74559

<On the World Bank Carbon Fund, I get the impression that the traded value of the credits will be $20-40/tn. So, if you are a coal-fired power generator and spewed 10m tn into your plume in 2002 and 2004 will be 11m tn and your cap, or quota, is 10m tn, then you are 1m tn over. The fine being $25/tn you look to buy the credits. You find a Calpine energy with unused credits because the new scrubber they put in their generator in 2002 cut them from 8m tn in 2002 to 6m tn. 8m tn being their cap, they can sell you 2m tn and they do so at a competitive price of, say, $20/tn or $20m. A broker would take a few points on the deal. This brings up all sorts of ideas about 'marginal cost of green technology' and long-term vs short-term emissions-reducing fixes but the idea I like is that this is a new market. Imagine GE putting in new, unproven tech and wanting to buy an option on 1m tn emissions for 2005 from someone. If the value is $20m, the option (if long-term) would be in the millions. This market is already working in Texas and Japan recently did a carbon emissions trade with Korea. Basically this is a new market and the last place to join will get the dirtiest industries.> Taikun, that's a lot of paperwork when it would be much simpler to simply not worry about carbon dioxide emissions. CO2 is plant food. I don't think plants would consider CO2 emissions "dirty". They love it when CO2 levels are up. They have been deprived of CO2 for eons as carbon has been stripped from the ecosphere and buried in permanent graves of coal, oil, gas, shale, peat, heavy bitumens and limestone. The residual CO2 is pretty thin gruel. Imagine inhaling 250 parts per million of oxygen - it would make life very difficult. I think plants, if they would speak to somebody other than Prince Charles, would tell us that they would like to have more CO2 please. Agriculturalists know this and feed them CO2 in glasshouses [by burning gas, which also warms them up - they like warmth too]. Governments and bossy britches just love red tape, bureaucracy and "problems to solve", especially when it involves them being in charge, enjoying pontificating rights, getting money, going to conferences, staying in nice hotels, having fancy meals paid for and with luck meeting a nice woman on the aeroplane. Mqurice PS: Paihia is a very beautiful place, but it will always remind me of the parallel universe of 911. My wife and I were staying in a house overlooking Paihia, the water and Russell. Our son phoned to tell us to turn on tv. It seemed insane to see what was going on in New York and Washington, the destruction of my beloved Twin Towers and those stuck in them and the people on the aeroplanes, while in front of me was the most beautiful scenery, sunrise and generally idyllic paradise.