The cap and trade system known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative announced on Monday that carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in the nine participating states on the East Coast fell by an average of 23 percent during the first three years of the program.
The pioneering program, known as RGGI (pronounced reggie), sets a ceiling on carbon dioxide emissions from electric power providers and requires the companies to pay for their emissions by buying allowances in auctions held four times a year. As an incentive to cut emissions, companies that pollute less can sell their unused allowances to other companies at the auctions.
RGGI officials said that 206 of the 211 power plants subject to the program’s requirements met their compliance obligations during the first three-year period. From Jan. 1, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2011, average annual
carbon dioxide emissions amounted to 126 million tons, a 23 percent decline from the previous three-year period running from 2006 through 2008.
Pollution from the plants was 33 percent below the program’s annual pollution cap of 188 million tons, a trend that is partly attributed to a greater reliance on natural gas (which pollutes less than coal-fired electricity) as gas prices declined. Other factors included state investments in energy efficiency and setbacks in the economy, RGGI officials
said.
The program is undergoing its first comprehensive review, and changes are foreseen.