UPDATE – Ontario cap-and-trade repeal bill sees compliance obligations, few refunds for purchased allowances
The Ontario government on Wednesday introduced a bill to formally repeal the province’s cap-and-trade programme, earmarking compensation equivalent to a tiny fraction of the nearly C$3 billion raised through allowance sales and effectively establishing compliance obligations for the scheme’s emitters.
According to Toronto-based consultants ClearBlue Markets, the government estimates there are currently over 200 million OCAs that have a value of approximately C$3.88 billion.
Ontario lawmakers are using this as a starting point in their calculations, and they came to their C$5 million compensation ceiling as follows:
C$1.25 billion worth of allowances were given for free
Permits worth C$2.4 billion will be ‘matched to emissions’ up to July 3
From the remaining C$243 mln, C$171 mln were purchased by oil companies and natural gas distributors that passed the costs onto customers
And from the remaining C$72 mln, C$67 mln are held by non-compliance entities such as speculators
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