Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

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>The RGGI CO2 Cap

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The RGGI CO2 Cap.

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The RGGI CO2 cap represents a regional budget for CO2 emissions from the power sector.

The RGGI cap is equal to the total number of CO2 allowances issued by RGGI States in a given year. A CO2 allowance represents a limited authorization to emit one short ton of CO2 from a regulated source, as issued by a participating state.

The initial regional CO2 emissions budget was set based on an analysis of 2000-2004 power plant CO2 emissions and an anticipated increase in CO2 emissions prior to the beginning of the program in 2009. This regional CO2 emissions budget was apportioned among the RGGI States. Together, the individual state CO2 emissions budgets comprise the regional CO2 emissions cap.

From 2009-2014, the RGGI cap was designed to stabilize power sector CO2 emissions in the RGGI States. From 2009-2011, the cap was 188 million short tons of CO2 per year for the ten-state region. The cap is currently 165 million short tons of CO2 per year for the nine-state region.

The Participating States have conducted a comprehensive program review of the CO2 Budget Trading Programs. Proposed amendments to RGGI have been incorporated in an Updated Model Rule released on February 7, 2013. The Updated Model Rule will guide each state as it follows its own statutory and/or regulatory procedures to propose updates to its CO2 Budget Trading Program. More information on the Updated Model Rule and accompanying materials is available at http://www.rggi.org/design/program_review.

 

CO2 Data for RGGI Units 2000-2008

The table below shows historical CO2 emissions data from regulated power plants in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont from 2000-2008. Blue cells to the left show annual CO2emissions for each state. Purple cells to the right show annual emissions expressed as "three year averages" (i.e. average annual emissions between 2000 and 2002, rather than actual emissions for 2000, 2001, and 2002).

Quarterly emissions data for the current control period is available through the Emissions Report in RGGICOATS.

This chart is also available by Excel Download (Updated 11/18/09), which also includes plant-specific emissions for each state.

Year-by-Year Data Three-Year Averages
State 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Final Budget 2000-2002 Average 2001-2003 Average 2002-2004 Average 2003-2005 Average 2004-2006 Average 2005-2007 Average 2006-2008 Average
Connecticut 11,977,434 11,005,310 9,842,414 9,273,759 9,989,119 11,323,844 10,761,759 10,052,782 8,988,858 10,695,036 10,941,719 10,040,494 9,701,764 10,195,574 10,195,574 10,712,795 9,934,466
Delaware 7,308,248 7,612,366 7,616,896 7,628,367 7,884,001 8,300,628 7,561,295 8,744,154 7,615,966 7,559,787 7,512,503 7,619,210 7,709,755 7,937,665 7,915,308 8,202,026 7,973,805
Massachusetts 25,452,680 25,400,430 25,278,273 27,218,204 26,369,630 26,640,945 23,449,199 25,366,733 21,438,041 26,660,204 25,377,128 25,965,636 26,288,702 26,742,926 25,486,591 25,152,292 23,417,991
Maryland 38,446,856 36,980,555 37,084,544 37,064,738 36,281,466 37,263,686 35,233,070 35,700,194 32,383,517 37,503,983 37,503,985 37,043,279 36,810,249 36,869,963 36,259,407 36,065,650 34,438,927
Maine 3,156,292 5,517,285 5,784,563 5,515,325 5,191,939 4,587,114 3,371,822 3,533,197 3,691,278 5,948,902 4,819,380 5,605,724 5,497,276 5,098,126 4,383,625 3,830,711 3,532,099
New Hampshire 5,178,731 4,862,445 5,556,992 8,478,382 8,812,538 8,972,027 7,568,884 7,314,954 7,095,147 8,620,460 5,199,389 6,299,273 7,615,971 8,754,316 8,451,150 7,951,955 7,326,328
New Jersey 21,954,959 20,177,621 21,145,667 20,543,331 21,133,145 21,937,521 20,697,088 21,809,332 20,601,805 22,892,730 21,092,749 20,622,206 20,940,714 21,204,666 21,255,918 21,481,314 20,780,561
New York 69,809,356 65,553,672 61,367,406 62,129,292 62,612,353 62,718,683 53,638,129 55,717,151 48,348,177 64,310,805 65,576,811 63,016,790 62,036,350 62,486,776 59,656,388 57,357,988 52,567,819
Rhode Island 2,959,594 1,782,110 3,254,015 2,668,990 2,219,100 2,692,228 2,625,422 3,161,200 3,292,517 2,659,239 2,665,240 2,568,372 2,714,035 2,526,773 2,512,250 2,826,283 3,026,380
Vermont 24,914 22,015 5,171 12,094 14,779 7,781 6,337 6,112 2,559 1,225,830 17,367 13,093 10,681 11,551 9,632 6,743 5,003
10 State Total
(short tons)		 186,269,063 178,913,809 176,935,941 180,532,482 180,508,070 184,444,457 164,913,005 171,405,809 153,457,865 188,076,976 180,706,271 178,794,077 179,325,497 181,828,336 176,621,843 173,587,757 163,003,379