Article
June 1, 2009
Waxman-Markey Unintended Consequences of the Auction Reserve Price
Published by Watermark Economics LLC, reprinted by permission
A marked-up version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 passed out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 21, 2009 as H.R. 2454.
The revised draft bill is 932 pages and covers a broad range of big-picture energy issues, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, and a federal cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In this short comment, we focus on the cap-and-trade part of the Waxman-Markey bill. In particular, we consider the implication of the auction price provision in Section 791 (d), which imposes a minimum price for auctioned allowances of $10 in 2012, escalating by the rate of inflation plus 5% per annum.