Policies to cap emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), such as the recently announced agreement among seven northeastern states, are expected to have important effects on the electricity industry and on the market value of firms that own electricity generation assets. The economics literature finds large efficiency advantages for initial distribution of tradable emissions allowances through an auction so as to direct revenues to tax relief or other public investments. However, an auction raises the costs for the regulated firms. This paper identifies rules for an initial distribution that satisfy a compensation goal for firms that is achieved through free distribution of a portion of the allowances, while maximizing the value of allowances that can be directed to public purposes. The paper employs a detailed simulation model to calculate numerical results for the market value of generation assets under the CO2 cap-and-trade program in the northeastern United States.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Resources For the Future in its series Discussion Papers with number
dp-06-28.
Find related papers by JEL classification: Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)