Platts to discontinue CAIR assessments March 1

Platts is proposing to discontinue effective March 1, 2012 its daily assessments for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission allowances created under the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR).

EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), the replacement for CAIR, is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2012, unless the scheduled implementation is impacted by court or congressional action. The CAIR allowances currently assessed will be superseded by new CSAPR allowances, which Platts intends to begin assessing effective trade date December 16. (See separate November 29 subscriber note at http://platts.com/SubscriberNotes) Platts is proposing to continue its CAIR allowance assessments through March 1 because generators have through the end of February to "true-up" their CAIR allowances with their 2011 emissions, and generators balancing their 2011 position may be trading through February 2012.

The CAIR assessments to be discontinued are published in Megawatt Daily, Coal Trader and Coal Outlook, on Platts Electricity Alert and in Platts Market Data.

Please submit questions or comments by December 23 to Brian Jordan at brian_jordan@platts.com with a cc to coal@platts.com and to pricegroup@platts.com.