A recent Washington Post blog post takes a quick look at the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s (RGGI) past and future. Intended to limit carbon pollution from electric power plants, RGGI works as a regional “cap-and-trade” program for most northeastern states, including Connecticut. However, carbon-dioxide emissions from the plants have fallen well below the RGGI cap due to the recession, which decreased electricity demand, and more power plants converting from coal to natural gas. Emissions are currently 45% below the RGGI cap, leaving little RGGI-related incentive for power companies to invest in lower emissions.
In response, RGGI recently announced a proposal to sharply drop the cap below current emission rates next year. According to the article, the drop could slightly increase electricity costs (less than 1%), while providing participating states with increased revenue from the companies that violate the cap (since 2009 the program has raised over $900 million from auctioning pollution permits). Overall, the lower cap hopes to cut annual emissions by about 13 million tons (0.06%) of all power plant emissions in the U.S. last year.
