The nine US RGGI states sold all 15.5 million carbon permits on offer at its June 3 auction for $5.50 each, the market regulator said on Friday.

This is well above the minimum price of $2.05 each but not enough to reach the $6 threshold that would have released an additional 10 million permits from the Cost Containment Release.

Some 68% of the auctioned allowances were bought by compliance firm and their affiliates, lower than the 77% average over all sales so far. 48 bidders took part and the sale was 3.1 times subscribed.

The auction generated $85 million for reinvestment in strategic programs, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, direct bill assistance, and GHG abatement programs, taking the total proceeds from all 28 RGGI auctions to $2.1 billion dollars.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com