(Host) Vermont has earned another $756,000 in a regional effort to reduce greenhouse gases.
Ten states from Maryland to New England have organized into the "Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative."
Each state auctions off ‘carbon credits’. Power companies in the region need the credits to release pollution into the atmosphere.
Richard Valentinetti is with the state’s air pollution control division. He says the price for the credits has risen since the first sale, as industry gets accustomed to the system.
(Valentinetti) “You know, this is the first cap-and-trade program in the United States to deal with CO2 and I think the market is just trying to find itself.”
(Host) He says prices the states have earned for the carbon credits have increased ten percent since the first auctions.
Vermont uses the money it raises to pay for energy efficiency improvements in homes and businesses.