One of my colleagues, Mary Quillian, NEI's manager for environmental programs, attended a RGGI meeting in Vermont last week and passed along these details in a recent email:
The current recommendation from the RGGI working group to the state officials is to enact a program with a cap that holds CO2 emissions from the electric sector at today's level through 2015 and then requires reductions of 1% per year through 2024.For more on RGGI, here's a story from the Reuters wire.
There are clearly discussions of earmarking some allowances for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.
Energy efficiency programs will aim to reduce demand and demand growth. Renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro) generates electricity without emitting CO2, but so does nuclear energy. NEI continues to ask for equal treatment of all new non-emitting capacity. Increased capacity at existing nuclear plants and eventually new nuclear plants, should receive the same treatment in this RGGI program as renewable energy because both prevent CO2 emissions by supplying electricity without the CO2 byproduct.
How to deal with leakage (the importation of power from non-RGGI states that have no CO2 regulations) and how to dole out allowances to the states (apportionment) are two tough issues still left to be dealt with.
State officials and the RGGI Working Group continue to work toward agreement on the design of a regional CO2 cap-and-trade program through phone calls and meetings. The Working Group will hold another stakeholder meeting in Boston on September 21, presumably to give stakeholders an update on proposed program design and seek stakeholders' comments.
Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics
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