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Tradable credit markets for intensity standards

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  • Rudik, Ivan

Abstract

Many environmental standards are expressed in terms of intensity rather than absolute levels. In some cases, intensity standards are associated with tradable credit markets to help reduce firms' compliance costs. I develop a jurisdictional model of credit trading under an intensity standard, framed in terms of a Renewable Portfolio Standard for electric utilities. I find that regulators of firms with low compliance costs always allow for inter-jurisdictional credit trade. Regulators of firms with high costs of compliance allow for credit trade under the condition that extra-jurisdictional credits count less towards compliance compared to credits generated within the jurisdiction. Counter-intuitively, increasing the stringency of the intensity standard when credit trading is possible can have the opposite of the intended effect and actually decrease renewable electricity generation. Using numerical simulations, I show that heterogeneity in terms of renewable costs or externalities across jurisdictions are not sufficient for inter-jurisdictional credit trading to be a stable equilibrium outcome.

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  • Rudik, Ivan, 2018. "Tradable credit markets for intensity standards," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 202-215.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:72:y:2018:i:c:p:202-215
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2018.01.016
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    1. Alex Hollingsworth & Ivan Rudik, 2019. "External Impacts of Local Energy Policy: The Case of Renewable Portfolio Standards," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(1), pages 187-213.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jed J. Cohen & Levan Elbakidze & Randall Jackson, 2022. "Interstate protectionism: the case of solar renewable energy credits," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(2), pages 717-738, March.
    2. Wang, Ge & Zhang, Qi & Li, Yan & Mclellan, Benjamin C. & Pan, Xunzhang, 2019. "Corrective regulations on renewable energy certificates trading: Pursuing an equity-efficiency trade-off," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 970-982.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy; Federalism; Intensity standard; Renewable portfolio standards; Pollution; Green preferences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

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