Environmental Leader

Some 69 participants from the financial, energy, and environmental sectors bid on permits for the right to emit carbon dioxide from power plants in the US Northeast in an auction by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

The clearing price was $3.38 per ton, which is $0.31 more than the first quarterly auction held in September, Reuters reports.

That auction generated about $38.6 million in proceeds from 12.5 million carbon permits. The December auction, however, raised nearly $107 million for the 10 states of the RGGI region that will use the proceeds for clean energy and energy efficiency projects.

The states will start regulating CO2 emissions from power plants in January 2009 with the goal of reducing emissions by 10 percent from 2015 through 2018. The next auction will take place in March 2009.

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