If U.S. legislators set a price of $35 per metric ton on carbon dioxide emissions the nation could achieve short-term reductions in emission levels of up to 10% according to a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology by Carnegie Mellon University researchers.
These emissions cuts would take place without any additional clean technology capitol investments, researchers found. By simulating the impact of the carbon fee applied to power plants in three U.S. regions, they determined the $35 price mark trigger a reduction in consumer electricity use and change the order in which grid operators dispatched generating capacity to favor plants with lower emissions levels.
The study, titled "Short Run Effects of a Price on Carbon Dioxide Emissions from U.S. Electric Generators," also found that emissions would be cut the most in regions, like the Northeast and Midwest, where there are fewer alternative and less-carbon-intensive fuel sources (such as natural gas).
"Our findings indicate that significant reductions in CO2 can and would be observed in the near-term, even before more efficient power generation technologies are deployed on a wide scale," said Jay Apt, associate research professor at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon and co-author of the study.
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