CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

A new regulation taking effect this year will cost electricity customers about $120 million annually, according to the state agency responsible for overseeing how the money is spent.

But the bill could go much higher, a spokesman for a trade group of energy producers warned.

The $120 million is the price tag for the state's participation in a group of Northeast and mid-Atlantic states that plan to limit emissions of greenhouse gases. The state plans to start selling permits to energy producers to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in December.

Tom Lynch of the state Energy Research and Development Authority said the initial impact on an individual customer's monthly electricity bill "could be rather small ... as little as 78 cents a month."

But a market is expected to develop for the permits. Lynch said it is impossible to estimate how high rates could go when companies start trading and selling the permits themselves.

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