The price of carbon pollution permits sold by an alliance of 10 Northeastern states hit a record high, three weeks after Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, dropped the state’s effort to join the coalition.
Shapiro’s high-profile decision to skip the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative may have contributed to the spike in how much money power plant operators in the 10 states must pay for their planet-warming emissions.
The initiative, known as RGGI, forces operators across the coalition to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions, which face a collective annual limit that declines each year. The payments to RGGI are made with the pollution permits it auctions four times a year, with demand setting the price.
At RGGI’s auction in early December, the pollution permits sold for $26.73 — a record amount that is 20 percent higher than the price in RGGI’s September auction and 33 percent higher than the price in December 2024.
