The nine US states making up the RGGI carbon market sold all 15.37 million emissions allowances on offer for $7.50 each in their latest auction, which was held Dec. 2.

Bids for the permits ranged from $2.05 to $10.01, the market’s operator RGGI, Inc. said in a release, adding that 51 bidders participated in the sale, which was three times oversubscribed.

The clearing price was well above the auction’s reserve price of $2.05.

Some 80% of the allowances were bought by compliance entities and their affiliates, RGGI, Inc. said, up from the average of 77% seen across all the sales held to date.

The auction was the fourth and final auction of 2015, and generated $115.3 million for the participating states to invest in areas including energy efficiency, renewable energy, consumer bill assistance, and GHG abatement programmes.

RGGI’s auctions have raised a total $2.3 billion to date.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com