UsSkyTrust.org
Title
The Sky Trust Initiative
Description
US Sky Trust, Inc. (USST) is a private non-profit trust (in formation) that is preparing to manage America's share of the atmosphere's limited carbon absorption capacity. The goal of the USST is to benefit American citizens and families by protecting the sky - our shared inheritance. It will be a private sector mechanism for reducing U.S. carbon emissions with minimum economic pain and maximum social equity.
Once organized, USST will compete with private corporations for congressionally allocated rights to emit carbon within the U.S. USST's competitive advantage is that it represents all U.S. citizens equally, while its competitors represent small subsets of citizens (their shareholders). USST expects Congress to allocate these carbon rights to someone within the next decade and intends to mount a major campaign to receive them.
If it is granted carbon emission rights by Congress, the Trust will then administer an economy-wide cap-and-trade program for carbon permits. Under this program, the Trust will auction carbon emission permits to companies that bring carbon into the U.S. economy. During the first ten years, a percentage of the income from permit sales will be allocated to Congress and the states for transition assistance. The remainder of the income will be distributed annually to all U.S. citizens on a one person, one share basis. In this respect, the Trust is modeled after the Alaska Permanent Fund.
