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WHEN some businesses consider the UN global-warming treaty, known as the Kyoto Protocol, and what it would mean for them if adopted by the United States, they see red. The treaty would require dramatic cuts in the use of fossil fuels. Conventional estimates place the costs of implementing the treaty at over $100 billion per year in the U.S. alone. A new study by the Energy Information Administration estimates that it could increase retail electricity prices anywhere from 20 to 80 per cent.

But still other companies—in a development that may bode ill for treaty oppo-

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Jonathan H. Adler

Jonathan H. Adler is a professor at William & Mary Law School.

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WHEN some businesses consider the UN global-warming treaty, known as the Kyoto Protocol, and what it would mean for them if adopted by the United States, they see red. The treaty would require dramatic cuts in the use of fossil fuels. Conventional estimates place the costs of implementing the treaty at over $100 billion per year in the U.S. alone. A new study by the Energy Information Administration estimates that it could increase retail electricity prices anywhere from 20 to 80 per cent.

But still other companies—in a development that may bode ill for treaty oppo-