Environmental Capitalism

Another article from Wired -- in the US, the EPA allows energy producers and other manufacturers to purchase allowances to pollute the environment. If a company goes over their allowances, the EPA fines them. This forces companies to lower their levels of pollution, or purchase allowances from other companies that can afford to sell them. But what if anyone can buy those allowances? Turns out that anyone can, and a few environmentally minded folks are doing just that -- they're buying up those allowances, refusing to sell them, and refusing to ever use them -- in effect, they're taking potential pollution out of the environment. Cool!