U.S. Prices Carbon Dioxide at More Than $13 a Ton in Draft Plan

      April 22 (Bloomberg) -- A proposed law to limit U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would price carbon dioxide permits in a range of $13 to $26 a metric ton by 2015, according to a preliminary government analysis. Permit prices would nearly double if the U.S. banned greenhouse gas reduction projects in developing countries from selling so-called “offsets” to domestic industry, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a report late yesterday. The agency included the carbon price estimates in a study of a draft climate change bill which is under debate in Congress. The proposed law would create a “cap-and-trade” program to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. The study was released at the start of a week of hearings on the proposal, written by Democrats Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts. The price range of $13 to $26 a permit was the result of five rounds of economic modeling that each used different assumptions. For 2020, the estimated permit price range is $17 to $33, the agency said. Each permit, also known as an allowance, would give the holder the right to emit the equivalent of one metric ton of carbon dioxide. In Europe, carbon dioxide permits closed yesterday at 13.22 euros ($17.09). Permits issued under a cap-and-trade program in the U.S. Northeast known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative closed yesterday at $3.70 each. The modeling “does not reflect the full range of possible allowance prices” that could result under a U.S. cap-and-trade program, according to the executive summary of the report. The agency said its estimated carbon dioxide permit prices rose 96 percent when the model assumed international offsets would be banned. Carbon credits from offset projects in countries such as China and India are accepted in Europe’s cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and factories. Lisa Jackson, the Energy Protection Agency’s administrator, is expected to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today.