Prior to the auction I said I would not be surprised it the price exceeded $35 a ton.  I noted that if it did it would  be real-time confirmation that the price trajectory regulators have not acknowledged is one more sign that the states’ own cost-containment tools — the mechanism they cite as evidence that consumer costs will be manageable — can no longer do the job they were designed to do.  Given these cost impacts it is past time to pause RGGI.