Paterson urged to keep RGGI rules
ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson continues to catch flak from environmentalists for his reported plan to revisit some carbon-dioxide emission regulations governing New York's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Last fall, 10 Eastern states agreed to cap the emissions from hundreds of power plants and make them pay for polluting. Under this carbon-trading initiative, each state issues its own tradable permits, or allowances, for each ton of carbon-dioxide pollution.
The New York Times reported Friday that the governor was planning to reconsider state regulations after complaints from the Independent Power Producers of New York over the cost of compliance. The power producers want more free emissions allowances.
On Monday, several environmental and energy advocacy organizations urged Gov. Paterson to keep the regulations, which were developed after a three-year public comment process.
"We do not understand why the governor would risk both environmental degradation and the integrity of the Department of Environmental Conservation's rulemaking authority," said Brian Houseal, executive director of the Adirondack Council, in a press release. "To undo all of that on a whim is bad public policy."
But the governor may be reacting to more than a mere whim.
In late January, Illinois-based Indeck Energy Services Inc. challenged the legality of New York's participation in the regional initiative. At the time, the company said its plant at Corinth, Saratoga County, operates under an existing fixed-price contract through 2015 and must incur greater costs than its competitors under the cap-and-trade system.
"We want to work with the state," said Peter A. Barden, Indeck spokesman. "We want to be treated like all others. We want to recover our costs. We don't want to derail RGGI; we just want fairness."
But some advocates don't agree.
"Power producers have been looking for ways to derail the nation's very first effort to reduce global warming pollution, RGGI, since it was on the drawing board," said Jackson Morris of Environmental Advocates of New York. "We're calling on (Gov. Paterson) to stick with the program and put New Yorkers' concerns before polluters.'"
The free allowances the DEC may disburse are now capped at 1.5 million tons. Industry officials are asking for 6.5 million tons.
The regional initiative seeks a 10 percent reduction in its power plants' carbon emissions by 2018 through the nation's first mandatory market-based cap-and-trade program. Member states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have agreed to cap emissions at current levels for six years, followed by a 10 percent reduction over the final four years. New York's initial overall cap is 64.3 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Plants generating more than 25 megawatts, of which there are more than 200 in the member states, are required to participate.
ON THE NET
RGGI: www.rggi.org
