CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

State lawmakers are in talks over a plan to lower New York’s cap on carbon emissions, a move that would likely boost costs for coal-fired power plants and revamp the state’s participation in a regional climate-change program.

Under pressure from environmental groups, lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office have discussed lowering the limit through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a nine-state cap-and-trade program in which carbon allowances are auctioned off to power producers.

That would increase the price of the credits at auction, and the added revenue to the state would partially be set aside to assist communities that see power plants close as a result, according to bill language obtained by Gannett’s Albany Bureau.

“One of the most serious things that has been looked at this year is adjusting the cap, and by adjusting the cap the credits themselves will regain value,” said Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, a Kingston Democrat who chairs the chamber’s energy committee. “How serious it is, whether those negotiations have produced any results, that’s another question.”

Under the draft bill, the “Clean Energy and Economic Revitalization Act of 2012” would pair the greenhouse-gas cuts with hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term incentives for solar energy. The bill would also expand and clarify the state’s net-metering law, which allows consumers to produce solar power and claim credits on their energy bill.

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