In this video from NJBIA’s 2024 Energy Conference, Jason Lemme, who runs the gas and power trading business for Hartree Partners, a global energy and commodities trading firm, discusses how the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is impacting carbon emissions and the region’s ratepayers.
RGG is a multi-state initiative aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from power plants in the region by requiring fossil fuel power plants to purchase “allowances” from auctions, other generators within RGGI or projects that offset emissions. The program, however, has flaws that can affect energy bills, Lemme said.
“You have no price limits; you have no position limits; and it’s a free-for-all on who can participate in this market,” Lemme said. “I don’t know a single commodity on the planet where the people holding all the inventory are the same people who set the price. That would be like giving OPEC the futures market and saying go set the price after you go set the supply.”
To watch the entire video, go here.
