The political debate over climate change has over the past several years grown from a murmur to a raging cacophony in the United States, and it now appears to be simmering just below the surface. This debate has centered on the existence and cause of climate change, a term that has become nearly synonymous with the term “global warming” in American politics, and on the manner in which this change can be stopped if it is in fact happening and stoppable. Amidst a sea of information and misinformation, politicians have devised several policy approaches aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Prominent among these approaches is a plan to create a cap-and-trade system9 to control carbon emissions in the United States, a method that can boast of many high profile and powerful political and scientific proponents.