New Jersey’s Carbon Cap Boosts Pennsylvania Coal: Liam Denning

If paying for carbon emissions is a tough sell, paying for someone else’s is a provocation. But that seems to be happening in a small corner of the US electricity market trying to do the right thing called New Jersey. The artificial intelligence boom and President Donald Trump’s energy peccadilloes look set to make things worse.

New Jersey straddles two multi-state organizations: PJM, America’s biggest power grid, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a carbon emissions cap-and-trade market. The RGGI, nicknamed “Reggie,” covers 10 northeastern states, where power plants must purchase allowances for their emissions. The number of available allowances declines over time, ...