42 U.S.C. § 7671f — Exchange authority

(a) Transfers. Within 10 months of November 15, 1990, EPA had to write rules letting producers get, and trade, allowances to produce class I and class II substances. These rules must make sure the trades allowed under this section lead to bigger total production cuts each year than would happen without them.

(b) Interpollutant transfers. (1) The rules must let a producer trade its allowance to produce one substance for an allowance to produce a different substance in the same year, weighted by ozone-depletion potential^*. (2) Allowances for substances within a given Group of class I substances (as listed under section 7671a) may only be traded for allowances of other substances in that same Group. (3) EPA must also set up trading groups for class II substances and assign each substance to one; class II allowances may only be traded within the same group.

(c) Trades with other persons. The rules must let two or more people trade production allowances — including cross-substance trades that meet (a) and (b) — only if the seller ends up subject to an enforceable, measurable annual production cut that: (1) is bigger than the cut the seller already owed under this subchapter; (2) is bigger than the allowances the seller transferred away; and (3) wouldn't have happened without the trade.

(d) Consumption^*. These same rules must also provide for issuing and trading "consumption" allowances, in the same way this section handles production allowances.