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Under C&I, pollution is no longer free: polluters must buy permits—"allowances", in the jargon—for each ton of greenhouse gas they emit. This raises the $ of fossil fuels, which incentivizes households & businesses to cut emissions, whether by using fewer ff's, or by switching to clean energy. 2/14

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Using data from @nyserda.bsky.social, we looked at two different scenarios: one with high allowance prices, and one with low ones (first chart). Because polluters must buy these allowances from the state, that creates revenue the state can spend on decarb or return to consumers (second chart). 3/14

Let's dig into the spending. First, buildings. It turns out that 88% of dwellings in NY could lower their energy bills if they switched to heat pumps today, though 58% of these would first need to weatherize before seeing savings. (Under higher carbon prices, both of these numbers improve.) 4/14

What kinds of savings are we talking about? Depends on the home, of course, but the median household would save an average of $54 a month, or $648 a year. Under higher allowance prices, savings go up: to $804/yr under the low price scenario, $1020 under the high. 5/14

Why does that happen? The higher the allowance price, the higher the cost of heating your home w/ fossil fuels. But electricity prices would not rise, even though NY’s grid is only ~50% clean, because the sector would likely be exempt, as it already participates in multi-state C&I system RGGI. 6/14