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February 28, 2007

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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

GHG Emissions Trade (JUNE 1999)

Item #d99jun30

An April EPA press release noted that the U.S. Generating Company and PG&E Energy Trading will transfer 10,000 greenhouse-gas-reduction credits to the Barnard/ Columbia Earth Coalition through Natsource Inc., an environmental-emissions brokerage. Each tradable unit is equal to one ton of carbon dioxide or CO₂ equivalent reduced. The emission reduction credits provided by USGen were earned through actions undertaken to meet voluntary commitments under the federal government’s Climate Challenge program, including improvements to the efficiency of the company’s power plants, operational changes (such as fuel switching), methane recovery, and a carbon- sequestration forestry project in Malaysia. The New York City-based student coalition will retire the credits, thereby ensuring they cannot be used to allow future emissions. The group has raised funds to pay for the transaction and USGen and PG&E Energy Trading will invest the proceeds in further measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The transaction is a first-of-its-kind sale between private industry and an environmental nonprofit and is one of only a handful of greenhouse-gas trades that have been performed worldwide.