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NE REGIONAL GREENHOUSE GAS INITIATIVE
At the heart of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a "cap and trade" program that sets a fixed limit on CO2 emissions. The right to emit the gas then becomes a tradable commodity on Jan 1, 2009. Companies that produce less carbon dioxide can sell their credits to others, giving an economic incentive to cut emissions and sell, rather than buy, credits.
The RGGI caps regional CO2 emissions at 121.3 million short tons through 2014, then cuts them to 10 percent below that level by 2018. Some say the pact will cost households an additional $3 to $24 per year on their electric bills, although the RGGI governors expect new technology and energy efficiency to reduce rates.
Each state in the group - Delaware, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont - will get an emissions budget. Massachusetts and Rhode Island backed out of the agreement, though some predict they'll join later.
Most companies that emit CO2 prefer cap-and-trade to regulatory approaches, which they say can require installing costly technologies, or to carbon taxes paid to the government. Cap-and-trade has been credited with helping cut power-plant emissions of smog-forming nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide in the 1990s.
The Northeast pact is a bit of a thumb in the eye to the Bush administration, which has not endorsed using cap-and-trade for CO2 emissions control (only for mercury emissions). In a global climate-change conference in Montreal last month, the administration instead touted research into emissions-control technology.
Some hope the new pact will be a model for other regions and, in the end, build pressure for a uniform, national program.
source: Christian Science Monitor
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Sustainable Life Info Copyright © 2006 DLH Business Associates. All rights reserved
At the heart of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a "cap and trade" program that sets a fixed limit on CO2 emissions. The right to emit the gas then becomes a tradable commodity on Jan 1, 2009. Companies that produce less carbon dioxide can sell their credits to others, giving an economic incentive to cut emissions and sell, rather than buy, credits.
The RGGI caps regional CO2 emissions at 121.3 million short tons through 2014, then cuts them to 10 percent below that level by 2018. Some say the pact will cost households an additional $3 to $24 per year on their electric bills, although the RGGI governors expect new technology and energy efficiency to reduce rates.
Each state in the group - Delaware, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont - will get an emissions budget. Massachusetts and Rhode Island backed out of the agreement, though some predict they'll join later.
Most companies that emit CO2 prefer cap-and-trade to regulatory approaches, which they say can require installing costly technologies, or to carbon taxes paid to the government. Cap-and-trade has been credited with helping cut power-plant emissions of smog-forming nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide in the 1990s.
The Northeast pact is a bit of a thumb in the eye to the Bush administration, which has not endorsed using cap-and-trade for CO2 emissions control (only for mercury emissions). In a global climate-change conference in Montreal last month, the administration instead touted research into emissions-control technology.
Some hope the new pact will be a model for other regions and, in the end, build pressure for a uniform, national program.
source: Christian Science Monitor
FairUse
top of page
Sustainable Life Info Copyright © 2006 DLH Business Associates. All rights reserved
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