Take a deep breath, then give a big shout out! We have learned that "Ithaca College: The Campaign for Ithaca's Air" successfully bid on and has been awarded two sulfur dioxide allowances in the Environmental Protection Agency's 2008 Allowance Auction. Thanks to all the contributors to this fund -- you gave us all a gift of cleaner air!
"Ithaca College: The Campaign for Ithaca's Air" was one of only 17 successful bidders for 125,000 available allowances. An allowance authorizes a utility or industrial source to emit one ton of sulfur dioxide during a given year. Allowances are fully marketable commodities that may be bought, sold, traded, or banked for use in future years. Most of this year's EPA allowances were purchased by organizations seeking to trade them on the open market.
By contrast, Ithaca's two clean air allowances will be retired, making them unavailable for further trading, reducing the ability of power producers to continue to release into our atmosphere pollutants that contribute to acid rain and diminish our air quality.
View Results of the 2008 EPA Allowance Auction
The Campaign for Ithaca's Air was an independent study project in environmental economics developed by Robyn Jennings '08, under the guidance of Bill Kolberg, associate professor of economics. During the fall semester, Robyn undertook the fund-raising effort necessary to get sufficient funding in hand to successfully bid on these two allowances.
Read More about the Sulfur Dioxide Allowance Market
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20080325142256359