NARUC Goes on Record
In a recent article, "Why Taxes Do Distort Emissions Trading" (Feb.15, 1995), Stanley I. Garnett II, chief financial officer of Allegheny Power System, Inc. discusses a legislative proposal currently promoted by his firm and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). This proposal seeks to amend current Internal Revenue Service policy on federal tax treatment of the proceeds of emission allowance sales.
Throughout 1994, Allegheny Power and CBOT sought an endorsement of the proposal from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). The matter came to a vote at the NARUC summer meetings in July 1994 in San Diego, CA, and received qualified support "conditioned on the simultaneous adoption of legislative language which specifically codifies that rate regulatory agencies could continue to order any ratemaking treatment deemed appropriate by the agency with respect to all or a portion of the gains received on the sale of emission allowances." The language of the Allegheny-CBOT proposal did not then and does not yet contain this safeguard, and therefore does not enjoy NARUC's endorsement.