Interactions of Environmental Policies in a Transmission-constrained Competitive Electric Market

This project was designed to address several emerging issues for the Western US and the context of the WECC: (1) Will multiple concurrent market-based policies necessarily benefit renewable producers at the expense of consumers and coal-based producers? (2) What is the relationship among prices of electric energy, emissions permits, and renewable energy credits (RECs)? (3) Will multiple concurrent market-based policies grant a greater magnitude of incentive for companies to manipulate markets in their favor (i.e., market power)? (4) Do the designs of the current policies have adequate flexibility without sacrificing environmental integrity and interfering with competitive market operations? and (5) Will any policy be redundant under certain conditions if their policy goals are to some extent overlapped?