MSU Buys $21,250 in Credits on Chicago Climate Exchange

Michigan State University (MSU) dolled out $21,250 to the University of Iowa (UI) for 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide credits through the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) program.

MSU bought the credits to increase its efforts to reduce energy consumption and speed up the use of alternative fuels at the MSU's T.B. Simon Power Plant.

The CCX is a voluntary program that gives an allotment of credits each year based on a market-based cap and trade program. MSU agreed to reduce use by 25,000 tons in 2007, but didn’t meet that goal because the campus was growing and therefore used more, not less, electricity.

UI burned enough biomass to reduce its carbon emissions beyond its CCX requirement, so it had extra credits in its registry. Selling the 5,000 tons to MSU gives MSU a chance to meet its goal, says Ferman Milster with UI.

“It’s a good thing to help another fellow institution,” he says.

Source: Lisa Mulcrone, Michigan State University

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.