The Following Companies All Manufacture Widgets and Dump Tons of Glop

Multiple Choice

The following companies all manufacture widgets and dump tons of glop into the air. The government wants to halve total pollution but does not know how much it will cost each company. If the government employs a tradable permit scheme in which it gives the same number of permits to each manufacturer at no cost, the total cost of cleanup for Polluters-R-Us after the exchange of permits is $____.

A) 0
B) 6,000
C) 7,000
D) 13,000