PUC names RGGI trustees
The Maine Public Utilities Commission yesterday announced the appointment of three trustees to oversee Maine's share of funds from the auction of "carbon allowances" under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
The three trustees of the Energy and Carbon Savings Trust are Tom Tietenberg, a recently retired professor of economics at Colby College and an expert in emissions trading; P. Andrews Nixon, the recently retired chairman of the Dead River Co. in Bangor and a member of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection; and Stephen Diamond, former commissioner of the Maine PUC and former state Deputy Attorney General, according to a press release from the PUC.
RGGI, which the Maine Legislature enacted in 2007, is a 10-state effort to reduce regional carbon dioxide emissions by capping the amount of CO2 fossil fuel-fired power plants can emit. In Maine, six plants fall under the RGGI program. To stay within the cap, each plant can either reduce its emissions, or purchase or trade carbon allowances, which will be sold at quarterly auctions, the first of which is to be held in Maine in September. Maine's share of the auction proceeds, to be administered by the trust, could be as high as $26 million in the first year, the release said.
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