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摘要

RGGI Holds First U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Auction: On September 29, the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York City hosted the first ever auction of carbon dioxide (CO_2) emissions allowances in North America. Fifty-nine entities from the energy, financial, and environmental sectors took part in the event, which was administered by World Energy Solutions, Inc. for the ten state collective known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). All of the 12,565,387 allowances offered, each representing 1rnton of carbon dioxide, were sold at a clearing price of $3.07 per allowance. Even more promising to the collective, the total quantity of 51,761,000 allowances demanded was four times the available supply for this first auction.rnAccording to its organizers, the event was significant for several reasons. First, as suggested by the numbers above, it proved that a demand for this service does indeed exist. Second, according to RGGI chair Pete Grannis, who is also Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), it "has success-rnfully used market forces to set a price on carbon, and this will send a clear market signal to support the investment in clean energy technologies." And last, it appears to have been a successful trial run for the infrastructure used to conduct the auction. World Energy Solutions concluded that the software executed the auction seamlessly, the process ran as expected, and there were no issues that affected the ability of bidders to participate.