Cap-and-trade puttering along quite nicely in the Northeast U.S.
One example of a carbon-trading system that seems to be doing just fine is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which currently involves nine states in the U.S. Northeast.
RGGI is pretty modest as these things go. It only covers power plants, and only those 25 megawatts or greater. (There are 211 covered plants at the moment.) Its first three-year trading period ended at the end of 2011.
Thus far, it seems to be working as planned — better than planned, actually. Over the 2008-11 period, CO2 emissions from covered plants were down 23 percent compared to the three years prior. That’s 126 million short tons of emissions eliminated.
In fact, over 2008-11, RGGI power plants came in 33 percent under the cap set by the program. (In 2012, they came in at 45 percent below the cap.)
http://grist.org/climate-energy/cap-and-trade-puttering-along-quite-nicely-in-the-northeast-u-s/
A small but significant victory for reducing carbon emissions.