NHBR Article

N.H. joins regional low-carbon fuel pact

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

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Gov. John Lynch and the governors from 10 other states have signed an agreement to develop a process for reducing carbon-based fuel emissions.

The memorandum of understanding, signed Dec. 30, calls for New Hampshire, along with Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, to create a framework for a Regional Low-Carbon Fuel Standard, aimed at reducing by 10 percent the carbon intensity of vehicle, and potentially heating, fuel.

The agreement contains a timetable for creating preliminary recommendations by Dec. 31, 2010, with a final program in place by early 2011.

“New Hampshire is committed to working regionally and nationally to avert climate change,” said Lynch in a statement. “We are pleased to work with other states to undertake an in-depth review of the issues surrounding a low-carbon fuel standard, including its potential economic impact. The work done under this MOU will give us information we need to determine whether to move forward with a low-carbon fuel standard as individual states and as a region.”

Under the agreement five major areas will be addressed:

• Compliance goals
• Parties to be regulated
• Whether or not to include heating fuels in the program
• Creating a method for trading credits on low carbon fuels
• Developing monitoring and enforcement mechanisms

New Hampshire is already one of the 10 states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which has a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent by 2018 through a market-based cap-and-trade system through which companies can buy, sell and trade emissions allowances.
The low-carbon fuel standard program is similar to RGGI in that it, too, will use a credit purchase system to help companies offset their emissions.

Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Burack said the new program would fit in with the governor’s climate action plan, which he signed last year. It has a broad goal of an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2050.

For more information, visit nescaum.org. -- CINDY KIBBE/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

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