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Auction of Pollution Permits Marks Breakthrough in U.S. Global Warming Policy

New York - The nation’s first auction of pollution permits under a global warming emissions cap was launched today by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. RGGI is a collaboration of ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states that have united to establish a program to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to 10 percent below current levels by 2019. Read the release.

Brief Summary

More and more people in New England are concerned about what global warming will mean for our coastline, our seasons and the health and well-being of future generations. We can do something to solve global warming, and we owe it to our children to act now.  In 2005, when Gov. Romney had a chance to join the other Northeast states in a cooperative agreement to cut our state’s global warming pollution, he backed out at the last minute.

Fortunately for Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick acted to move Massachusetts back into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in January of 2007. Not only did Massachusetts rejoin this regional pact, but Gov. Patrick ensured that we will do it right— by committing to requiring power plants to pay through an auction system for the right to emit global warming pollution, which will create revenue to be spent on efficiency programs that lower pollution while also lowering energy bills.

Scientists expect global warming to cause rising sea levels, more extreme weather, more expensive storm damage and insurance coverage, and increased incidence of asthma, along with a host of other environmental problems.  

RGGI is the first regional policy on climate change in the United States, and should pave the way for future efforts to control global warming pollution. The plan, negotiated during 2003, 2004 and 2005 by staff for the governors of northeast states from Maine to Maryland, will cap global warming pollution from power plants, the second largest source of emissions in the Northeast.

Eight Northeast states have now adopted the power plant pollution plan. It will come into full force in 2009 and will require that global warming pollution from power plants in the region remain constant through 2014 and then fall 10 percent by 2018.  

To accomplish the global warming pollution reductions, RGGI utilizes a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide emission permits. In Massachusetts, polluters will have to buy the amount of carbon dioxide permits equal to what they expect to emit, and if they reduce emissions and have excess permits, they can sell them in the market to plants that are emitting more than they expected. Total emissions will not be allowed to exceed the cap.