RGGI raised more than $117 million in its March 18 auction of more than 33 million carbon allowances.
According to results from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, all of the 31,513,765 allowances for the 2009 vintage sold at a clearing price of $3.51 per allowance. The auction was the first since compliance obligations under RGGI's first three-year control period began January 1, 2009.
The RGGI states also auctioned allowances for the second three-year control period beginning in 2012, providing a first-look at future market prices for RGGI CO2 allowances. The 2,175,513 allowances for the 2012 vintage cleared at a price of $3.05 per allowance. By the end of 2009, the RGGI states will have offered for sale 5% of the total supply of 2012 vintage allowances.
The auction raised $117,248,629.80.
Fifty separate entities submitted bids to purchase 2.5 times the available supply of 2009 allowances, and 20 entities submitted bids to purchase 2.3 times the available supply of 2012 allowances. A total of 42 entities won allowances for the 2009 offering, in which bid prices ranged from $1.86 (the minimum bid allowed) to
$10.00. Twelve bidders won allowances for the 2012 offering, in which bid prices ranged from $1.86 to $4.40.
Compliance entities and their affiliates won 78 percent of the 2009 allowances and 93 percent of 2012 allowances. The high percentage of allowances won by compliance entities at auction continues a trend established in the two "pre-compliance" auctions held in September and December 2008 in which compliance
entities won 80 percent and 85 percent of allowances, respectively.
The complete Auction Report for the RGGI CO2 Allowance Auction 3 is available here.
