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National
Bell Rings for Nation's First Carbon Market
''It is time really to turn the tide on global warming,'' said New York Democratic Governor David Paterson as he rang the bell at the New York Mercantile Exchange on September 25, opening the nation's first carbon dioxide (CO2) auction, held by 10 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states under their 2003-rooted Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which makes it mandatory for more than 200 fossil-fuel power plants to keep their emissions at the current annual level of 188 million tons through 2014 and to cut them by 10 percent in the next four years.
With power companies having to pay for emissions allowed from their plants under state caps, reports Associated Press writer Karen Mathews, they are now gaining not only some flexibility in meeting their targets, but also a financial incentive to do even better.
Companies that don't reduce emissions can buy allowances from more environmentally conscious ones, which can buy fewer credits and sell any they don't need.
States will invest quarterly auction proceeds in energy efficiency, renewable sources, and clean technologies, spurring innovation and creating green jobs.
''Today marks the culmination of more than five years of research, design and development of the nation's first carbon market,'' stressed RGGI, Inc. Executive Director Jonathan Schrag about the auction. ''It is fitting that our event took place on the shores of the river that Henry Hudson explored nearly 400 years ago. As with Hudson exploration then, these pioneering states are leading the way forward on a new, clean-energy economy that others will surely follow.''
The RGGI signatories are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Joining Governor Paterson at the launch of the auction, New Jersey Democratic Governor Jon Corzine pointed out that both presidential candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, support cap-and-trade programs for cutting carbon emissions from power plants, saying ''there is building momentum'' for similar federal legislation.
Union of Concerned Scientists climate program director Lance Pierce called the auction historic.
''The carbon markets have arrived in the United States,'' he observed. ''And carbon markets, if designed correctly, hold the promise for development of cleaner energy and reductions in global warming pollution that benefit consumers, businesses and the environment, as well.''
Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney Dale Bryk agreed.
''This new energy plan is straightforward, highly cost-effective and creates a clean energy pathway for the rest of the country to follow,'' he said. ''It is the shape of things to come.'' Details at www.rggi.org/states.
9/25/2008
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