Two firms, a and b, each currently dump 50 tonnes of chemicals into the local river. from now on both firms will require a pollution permit for each tonne of pollution dumped into the river. the government gives each firm 20 tonnes’ worth of pollution permits, which it can either use or sell to the other firm. it costs firm a $100 for each tonne of pollution that it eliminates before it reaches the river, and it costs firm b $50 for each tonne of pollution that it eliminates before it reaches the river. what is likely to happen?

Firm B will sell all its permits to Firm A  i.e ( lesser chemical dumps into the river )

Explanation:

Firm B will rather sell all its 20 tonnes worth of pollution permit to firm A because it would cause Firm B lesser than Firm A when they dispose off their wastes before it gets to the River hence they will rather dispose off their waste rather than paying/purchasing pollution permits while

Firm A will buy out all of Firm B's allotted pollution permits to reduce the number of tonnes they would dispose off before getting to the river. this is because it would cause them more when they dispose off their waste before getting it to the river. hence the End product of the whole arrangement will be  Chemical dumps into the River will be reduced drastically to 40 overall instead of 100 due to the cost of dumping permits.