September 27, 2004—The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) first annual NOx Budget Trading Program 2003 Progress and Compliance Report shows that the market-based cap-and-trade program created to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from power plants and other large combustion sources in the eastern US has been successful in reducing summertime NOx. NOx is a prime ingredient in the formation of ground-level ozone (smog) in the eight participating states.
Under the NOx Budget Trading Program, total ozone-season NOx emissions from power plants and other large combustion sources were 30 percent below 2002 levels in eight northeastern states and DC. NOx Budget Trading Program cuts, when combined with other NOx control programs, have reduced ozone-season NOx emissions from sources in these states 70 percent below 1990 levels, despite power generation increases. When fully implemented, the NOx Budget Trading Program will reduce a projected one million tons of NOx.
