Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 12/17/2008 3:02:39 AM PST by Libloather
NH joins final test of greenhouse gas cap-trade system
By DAVID BROOKS Telegraph Staff
Published: Wednesday, December 17, 2008
If it's true that the country tends to follow New Hampshire's lead – which is the whole idea of our presidential primary, after all – then today's auction of the right to send 1.2 million tons of carbon into the air has extra significance.
New Hampshire is participating for the first time in the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, or "reggie"), the hemisphere's first cap-and-trade system designed to curtail the gas that most contributes to global warming.
The recession has reduced both the need and likely return from the sale, but nonetheless, the process is so new that attention remains high.
"Given that the economy is slow, emissions are down," said Joanne Morin, climate and energy programs manager for the state Department of Environmental Services.
Still, she added, "A lot of people are watching."
They're watching because RGGI is the first cap-and-trade system aimed at greenhouse gases in this hemisphere, which makes it a model of practices to emulate – or avoid.
Among the interested spectators are a half-dozen Western states, including California, that have announced plans to institute some greenhouse-gas controls, plus the new presidential administration. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed interest in a sort of nationwide version of RGGI to cut greenhouse gases.
Also watching are the many critics of cap and trade, of which there are many. The political right sometimes decries the system as a hidden, unnecessary tax, while the environmental left sometimes decries it as a bureaucratic mess that won't accomplish anything.
Europe has had a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions for two years, although with some significant differences than the RGGI model, and so far it hasn't done much to curtail pollution. On the other hand, the Northeast successfully used cap-and-trade to curtail acid rain.
RGGI conducted what might be considered an "alpha test" in September, when seven of the 10 states – excluding New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey – participated in the first of what will be quarterly auctions.
It did better than some had feared, with all 12 million allotments sold (each allotment allows 1 ton of carbon dioxide pollute to be emitted by a utility) at a price of $3.07 each, in the middle of the predicted price range.
Today's quarterly auction could be called a "beta test," since all states will participate this time, but it's still a "precompliance" sale, because utility companies don't have to start owning allotments to offset their pollution until Jan. 1.
The sale will involve 31.5 million CO2 emission allowances. New Hampshire will sell 1.2 million of them.
The sale has a floor price of $1.87, so New Hampshire will make at least $2.24 million – as long as all the allotments are sold, that is.
The recession has reduced energy consumption by industries, cutting the amount of electricity produced by utilities and therefore the amount of pollution they have to produce, which, in turn, cuts their need to stockpile allotments to offset carbon emissions.
Combined with the fact that RGGI has a "loose cap" – it will sell 188 million tons of CO2 annually, whereas the New England utilities generated only 150 million tons a year – and it isn't clear how much need utilities have to buy allotments.
It's likely that the sale price will be less than the $3.07 of September's sale. Figures probably won't be available until late in the week or early next week.
Partly as a result, activists are urging environmental groups to buy allotments to increase the cost of pollution.
The money from the sale is distributed to the participating states, which use it as they see fit. New Hampshire will use its money to improve energy efficiency, hoping to reduce the need for future allotments.
"Already, $1.2 million has been earmarked for the StayWarm initiative," said Morin, talking about the volunteer effort to help low-income residents weatherize their homes. "Money (from today's sale) will go directly into the weatherization initiative."
Now that's news...
Let's see. New Jersey buys carbon credits from New Hampshire. This raises the cost of energy production in New Jersey. New Jersey utilities raise prices to compensate. New Jersey energies transfer their wealth to the state of New Hampshire for nothing. No, it's not just a hidden tax, but taxation without representation, because the people taxed in New Jersey cannot vote in New Hampshire.
When all has been said and done it would have been cheaper to let AlGore Inventor of the Internet be POTUS. Just look at the mischief he has been up to with all that spare time on his hands. Global Warming? It is a bigger scam than Y2K ever was, and it is going to cost needless TRILLIONS of dollars worldwide.
Even more galling is the fact that he has managed to make himself rich and famous on this SCAM.
Wonder when their power was restored to get off the press release after the last ice storm. This “junk science” has gotten well out of hand and it’s adherents seem to be gripped in a disturbing psychological disorder. I’m convinced that a large number of libs have embraced “global warming” as the new “green religion.” Along with their “religious” zeal comes the opportunity to siphon off billions of hard earned dollars from our already struggling economy.
Two lies in the same phrase. If the "fix global warming" bs is included it would make three.
This is a monstrous tyranny, for the real goal is to tax and control the production of energy itself, and thereby throttle our prosperity here in the US.
By only levying taxes on local producers, it allows items from non-taxed, non-local producers to be imported. Over time, of course those items should have a lower cost of production. The unintended consequence of this absurdity is to encourage production to be done elsewhere. And we wonder why we have a loss of jobs.
Of course some tyranny begets avoidance, which begets more tyranny. How long will it be before a Equivalence tax is levied on non-local goods?
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