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Despite the delays, increasing fares, weekend service changes, and rain-related shutdowns, the New York’s subway and surface transit systems are assets to the city’s overall quality-of-life in that they keep tons of airborne pollution out of the skies. Imagine if all 8 million of us hopped into our own cars each morning instead of packing into trains and buses. Now the MTA is trying to figure out how to turn these environmental assets into a financial ones–possibly by trading its emission-reduction benefits on the worldwide carbon market.
Last month, the MTA reached out to the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton to see if it could quantify the agency’s carbon footprint and figure out a way to turn it into cold hard cash. After calculating the amount of greenhouse emissions that the MTA’s subways and buses actually cut from the air, the MTA can put a value on these carbon offsets and then trade them (by the ton on the open market) to polluting businesses around the country and world. These polluters are allowed to exceed government-mandated limits on greenhouse pollution if they buy unused emissions from environmentally-friendly outfits like the MTA.
The carbon trading market is just getting off the ground in the United States, but is well established in places like Europe and Japan. Today carbon brings about $2 to $7 per ton, but is expected to rise in value as more regulations are imposed and the nation becomes more environmentally conscious. Hopefully with this new carbon effort, the MTA can look beyond its real estate holdings and ever-unpopular fare hikes to raise the revenue it needs to keep New Yorkers moving (at least when its not raining or the weekend).
