That's almost half. Here's where Hamilton's group comes in. Each March, when the Chicago Board of Trade auctions off the right to pollute, utilities bid, speculators bid, and the Acid Rain Retirement Fund bids. If you don't use it, you've made that much unavailable to someone who might have used it. Hamilton says in addition to keeping that pollution out of the environment, they're also helping to exert upward pressure on the price of polluting, making it more expensive for polluters.
Maine is downwind of all of the electric power plants in the United States.
They now have the right to emit 13 tons of sulfur dioxide into the environment in 1999 and every year thereafter. ARRF also bought 16 tons in 1996 and eleven tons 1997. Because those have accumulated over time, ARRF now holds the legal right to emit 110 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air next year. They're not going to though, and what's more important is no one else is, at least not with those allowances. Our bylaws say we can not.