CO2 Allowances Sold at $3.00 at 22nd RGGI Auction

RGGI Auctions Have Generated over $1.5 Billion for State Reinvestment

The nine Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the nation’s first market-based cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, today announced the results of their 22^nd auction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) allowances.

38,329,378 CO₂ allowances were sold at the auction at a clearing price of $3.00. Allowances sold represent 100 percent of the allowances offered for sale by the nine states. Bids for the CO₂ allowances ranged from $1.98 to $12.00 per allowance.

The auction generated $114.9 million for reinvestment by the RGGI states in a variety of consumer benefit initiatives, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, direct bill assistance, and greenhouse gas abatement programs. Cumulative proceeds from all RGGI CO₂ allowance auctions currently total $1.5 billion dollars.

According to the independent market monitor’s report, electricity generators and their corporate affiliates have won 81 percent of CO₂ allowances sold in RGGI auctions since 2008. Additional details are available in the Market Monitor Report for Auction 22.

After twenty-two auctions, RGGI has demonstrated that regional carbon pollution programs can cost-effectively reduce emissions while strengthening the economy. ,” By harnessing market forces and aligning state policies, RGGI has helped states significantly lower emissions while building a clean energy infrastructure.
 
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Auction 22 Results At-A-Glance
Auction Date	December 4, 2013
Allowances Offered for Sale	38,329,378
Allowances Sold	38,329,378
Ratio of Bids to Supply	2.7
Clearing Price	$3.00
Reserve Price	$1.98
Proceeds from Auction 22	$114,988,134.00
Total Cumulative Proceeds (All Auctions)	$1,567,758,634.96
Number of Bidders in Auction 22	49
Percent of Allowances Purchased by Compliance Entities & their Corporate Affiliates in Auction 22	43%

More data is also available at: http://www.rggi.org/market/co2_auctions/results.

RGGI Program Review

 The RGGI states released an Updated Model Rule and Program Review Recommendations Summary on February 7, 2013. The Updated Model Rule will guide the RGGI states as they follow state-specific processes to propose updates to their CO₂ Budget Trading Programs. The RGGI states anticipate that they will complete their state-specific processes such that the proposed changes would take effect in January 2014.

The changes outlined in the Updated Model Rule and Program Review Recommendations Summary build upon RGGI’s success and strengthen the program moving forward.

Improvements include:

• A reduction of the 2014 regional CO₂ budget, “RGGI cap”, from 165 million to 91 million tons – a reduction of 45 percent. The cap would decline 2.5 percent each year from 2015 to 2020.
• Additional downward adjustments to the RGGI cap from 2014-2020. This will account for the private bank of allowances held by market participants before the new cap is implemented in 2014.
• Cost containment reserve (CCR) of allowances that creates a fixed additional supply of allowances that are only available for sale if CO₂ allowance prices exceed certain price levels ($4 in 2014, $6 in 2015, $8 in 2016, and $10 in 2017, rising by 2.5 percent, to account for inflation, each year thereafter).
• Updates to the RGGI offsets program, including a new forestry protocol.
• Not reoffering unsold 2012 and 2013 CO₂ allowances.
• Requiring regulated entities to acquire and hold allowances equal to at least 50 percent of their emissions in each of the first 2 years of the 3 year compliance period, in addition to demonstrating full compliance at the end of each 3 year compliance period.
• Commitment to identifying and evaluating potential tracking tools for emissions associated with electricity imported into the RGGI region, leading to a workable, practicable, and legal mechanism to address such emissions.

More information, including the Updated Model Rule and accompanying materials.