The nine states still participating in the Regional Greenhouse
Gas Initiative are getting ready for the first auction of
RGGI's second compliance period, scheduled for March 14th. In
the auction notice released last week, they
announced 4 changes to the program, and analysts are predicting
there are far more significant changes to come -- namely
adjustments to the total emissions cap.
The first change: which
we knew was coming; New Jersey is officially out. The second:
the reserve price, the lowest price at which allowances may sell,
has been increased by 4 cents to $1.93, in line with the Consumer
Price Index. The third: although RGGI usually offers allowances
from two different compliance periods for sale at each auction,
March's auction will offer only 2012 allowances, raising some
questions about RGGI's own view of its future past this
compliance period's end in 2014. The fourth change: the
participating states announced that they will retire 87 million of
the
