June 5th, 2012

Power plants subject to a regional cap-and-trade program in the northeastern U.S. known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 23 percent during the first three years of the program, the…

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October 6th, 2008

By John DeFore

The first-ever RGGI auction, which we reported on last week, has concluded, and now begins the long process of seeing how it works.

Critics are skeptical, saying the emissions caps were set too high and therefore led to allowance prices that were too low. GOOD Blog contributor Ben Jervey calls it a “doomed-to-failure program (or, at least, doomed-to-very modest success)” while allowing that it “will prove invaluable, mostly for the lessons learned from what goes wrong.”

But RGGI members, who never claimed they’d fix the world immediately, are taking a brighter view: The six states involved in the first round raised $38.5 million from the auction, money RGGI says they’ll invest in “energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, and programs to benefit energy consumers.” That’s something by itself, even if it takes time for the cap-and-trade plan to have much impact on emissions.

The going rate for a single allowance, once the gavel fell, came to $3.07 per ton of emissions. All twelve million-plus of the allowances put up for sale were sold, not just to power-plant operators but also to financial and environmental organizations.

Fifty-nine buyers took part in the auction, presenting a demand (close to 52 million allowances) that was four times as much as the available supply. Maryland, putting the most allowances up for sale, took home a hefty $16.4 million. According to Deputy Director of Communications Dawn Stolzfus, the state passed a law this year to determine exactly how that money will be spent (even if the categories are broad) — allocating, for instance, 10.5% to “clean energy & climate change programs, outreach & education.”

The next RGGI auction is December 17, and they’ll be held on a quarterly basis for the next three years.

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September 26th, 2008

By John DeFore

This week, for the first time in the United States, an auction was held allowing power plants to bid against each other for the right to spew carbon dioxide into the air.

The goal, of course, is to reduce atmospheric carbon by finding the best way of putting a price tag on it for polluters. Ten Eastern states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (or RGGI, pronounced “Reggie”) to coordinate their efforts by placing mandatory overall caps on emissions levels, then auctioning off allowances for CO2 emissions that can be traded between companies. As a result, companies will have a financial incentive to clean up their own act as quickly as possible.

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