California Raises $640m for GHG Fund

The US state of California raised an estimated $640 million for its greenhouse gas fund by auctioning permits to curb carbon emissions—a result that analysts said shows restored confidence in the state’s cap-and-trade program. Every allowance offered in the auction sold at above the $13.57 floor price, according to California Air Resources Board results released on Aug. 22, Bloomberg reported. Under the state’s program, regulated entities—including power plants, oil refineries and other industrial facilities and distributors of natural gas and transportation fuels—can comply with annual carbon-emissions caps either by installing controls or purchasing allowances.  Excess allowances can be sold. Each allowance equals one ton of greenhouse gases.