Vermont and nine other states hoping to crack down on power plants and other large-scale greenhouse gas emitters are planning a first-in-the-nation auction of carbon dioxide allowances.
The participating states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — want to sell allowances as part of a cap-and-trade program.
Under the plan, governments would cap the amount of carbon dioxide that factories and plants are allowed to discharge annually and then the companies would have to buy enough allowances to cover their emissions, with excess allowances sold at a profit on the secondary market.
The states have set a cap, effectively a CO2 emissions budget, of about 188 million tons, which is the amount of carbon dioxide power plants expect to discharge in 2009.
The chairman of the initiative says utility companies are expected to be the prime audience. RGGI chairman Pete Grannis, who’s New York state’s environmental conservation commissioner, says that if polluters want to use our air to dispose of their wastes, they’ll need to pay for it.