AMC Outdoors, May 2008
Northeastern states mandate carbon caps
Slowly tightening the valve on greenhouse gas emissions is a move that several legislators and environmentalists consider a modest step, but one in the right direction. In March, New Hampshire became the 10th state in the Northeast to formally adopt the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s (RGGI) cap-and-trade program.
RGGI formed in 2005 when seven governors pledged to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, from coal-fired power plants that produce 25 megawatts or more of electricity. (Almost all power producers in the Northeast—95 percent—meet this definition.) Nationally, the power sector is responsible for 38 percent of the greenhouse gases released each year, the largest single source of industrial emissions. Worldwide, 80 percent of the pollution triggering climate change is due to carbon dioxide emissions.
The states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware formed RGGI and were later joined by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland. Each state was required to pass laws by 2009 that outline and regulate its role in RGGI.
“It was anticipated that there would be a national program by now,” says New Hampshire Congresswoman Naida Kaen, who sponsored the state’s RGGI bill. “But in the absence of federal action, this is the next best thing.”
What “this” is can seem complex; the nuances of the program have inspired pages of documentation. Simply put, RGGI establishes a carbon budget for each state. During the first six years of implementation, 2009 to 2014, states are required only to stabilize emissions and keep them near current levels—a regional cap of 188 million “short-tons” of carbon dioxide has been established as the baseline ceiling.
Beginning in 2015, power generators in each state will be required to reduce their total statewide emissions by 2.5 percent a year through 2018, resulting in an overall 10 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the final year. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services cited modeling forecasts that indicated regional emissions would increase by 7 percent between 2009 and 2018 if RGGI is not implemented.
Susan Arnold, AMC director of conservation, refers to RGGI as “a modest first step,” because it is “only one sector of the economy of emissions. It’s not the answer, but I think what the science tells us now is there is no single answer.”
One of the other major advantages of the effort, beyond the carbon dioxide reduction, is that it “creates pots of money for states to invest in energy efficiency,” Arnold says.
The initiative works like this. New Hampshire will have a budget of 8.6 million allowances each year, where one allowance equals the emission of one short-ton of carbon dioxide. The state can auction, sell, or give away its allowances to power plants in the area. Most RGGI states, including New Hampshire, have pledged to auction off all or nearly all of their allowances, creating a marketplace where power plants buy, sell, and trade allowances in order to cover their emissions.
The auction revenue must be used by each state to fund consumer benefits programs that include energy-efficiency projects, mitigation of electric rate hikes, and the promotion of renewable energy technologies.
“We need to develop green energy sources, but we need to do that in conjunction with reducing our energy demand,” Arnold says. “Greener [energy] sources being developed are simply adding to the grid and not helping to take coal-fired plants offline.”
The impending impact of climate change, Kaen says, is an imperative for the regional cooperative. “Spending the money now to be proactive just makes so much more sense than picking up the pieces after the damage is done.”
-By Karen Finogle
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