Blue Sky Thinking.

The article looks at the development of the "cap-and-trade" system used to control industrial emissions and protect the environment. Starting as an unpopular strategy in the 1980s, the cap-and-trade system became adopted as national law in the U.S. in 1990 in order to curtail the pollutants released by power-plants that contributed to acid rain, most notably sulfur dioxide. The efforts of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to make pollution control an economically smart business strategy are discussed. The political reactions of presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush to the cap-and-trade system are reviewed.