Wednesday Night!

* I just don’t understand it; instead of feeling happy, I feel sort of let down: You’re a Good Man, Barack Obama. (Thanks, Erica!)

* How cap-and-trade works for acid rain and smog. The success of sulfur dioxide market is an important piece of counterevidence to those (like me) who think that a cap-and-trade market won’t work—but it’s worth noting that a carbon market would be far larger in scope than the SO2 version, potentially impacting nearly every segment of the global economy. Speculative trading and even a financial bubble is much more likely to emerge in a global CO2 market than in a sulfur dioxide market conducted in a single country. An earlier Grist piece also problematizes the supposed success of sulfur trading:

Compare the success of the often-touted sulfur dioxide trading system the U.S., instituted in 1990, with the speed and quantity of reductions under rule-based systems during the same period. U.S. SO2 emissions dropped by 31% between 1990 and 2001. Over the same period of time, under old fashioned rule-based regulation, Germany reduced its emissions by 87%, Italy by 62%, and Western Europe as a whole by 57%.

A carbon tax remains the smarter choice.

* How Canada is screwing up Copenhagen.

* And my favorite senator, Bernie Sanders, will try to put a hold on Bernanke’s reconfirmation at the Federal Reserve.