Due to a reporting error, this story incorrectly states that Progress Energy does not support carbon cap and trade auctions. Progress Energy doesn’t support regional auctions, but it does support national ones. The Daily Tar heel apologizes for the error.
The nation’s first cap and trade auction of greenhouse gases, held last week, set a new precedent in reducing emissions.
Amid growing concern about global climate change, 10 northeastern states established the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to set their own emission limits and force fossil fuel plants to pay for their ability to emit greenhouse gases.
North Carolina has never enacted a cap and trade system for carbon dioxide, but the method has been used with other pollutants, said Tom Mather, spokesman for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Division of Air Quality.
“While North Carolina currently doesn’t have a credit system like that, we’ve been discussing it with other states in the region,” he said.
Although the cap and trade method has been used, Mather said the practice is flawed because there can be a disproportionate concentration of pollution in one area.
He said that might make the system less than ideal for monitoring pollutants that cause health problems. That is not an issue with carbon dioxide because it does not pose a health threat, he said.
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection officials were satisfied with the auction’s success, said spokesman Ed Coletta.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced Monday that $13.3 million from the auction will be used to support energy efficiency programs.
Coletta said department officials hope more regions follow suit.
“We think it’s an important effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
“We’re doing it as a region, and we hope other regions are looking at it as well.”
Although New York is a member of the initiative, it did not participate in this auction. For a state to participate, it has to set regulation ground rules.
Only six of the 10 states were ready for the first auction, said Yancey Roy, spokesman for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
One N.C. energy provider, Progress Energy, does not support the cap and trade system but does support other methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“We strongly believe that actual allowances should be allocated rather than auctioned,” said Scott Sutton, a spokesman for Progress Energy. “At the end of the day, your emission reductions will be the same.”
Ned Raynolds, northeast coordinator for climate change at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s efforts will not reduce overall emissions, because the cap is higher than output.
However, the method does encourage companies to search for alternatives because it puts a price on emitting carbon dioxide, Raynolds said.
The cap will be incrementally lowered beginning five years from now. The states are allowed to lower the cap ahead of schedule
“It doesn’t appear that (the initiative) will cause much in the way of actual reductions,” Raynolds said.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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