Last week marked the 17th Auction in the Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative (RGGI). The number of bidders who went through
the process of qualifying to participate in the auction is the
lowest it has been in the program's history -- 29, down from 35
from the last auction in June, and well below the high of 84 in the
first auction involving all member states, held in December 2008. Only 24.5 million
allowances (65%) of the nearly 38 million offered for sale by the
now-9-state organization (sans New Jersey) sold at the floor price
of $1.93 per allowance, and all of the allowances were bought by
entities regulated by the carbon dioxide-capping program.
However, the money is still good. Cumulative proceeds from the 17 auctions total
well over a billion dollars in revenues, and last week's
auction, despite the waning lack of interest and participation,
brought in over $47 million to fund the member-states'
renewable energy, energy efficiency and consumer
