NJ's participation in this week's RGGI auction is a milestone for the state's green-prosperity movement. But let's make no mistake -- it's a small, tentative milestone.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is resulting in a Northeastern utility such as PSE&G paying an additional $3.38 for each ton of carbon buys the right to emit. The figure is a tiny fraction of the "externalized costs" to society of global warming and pollution. Consider that it would take a $20/ton carbon price to make it more cost effective for a utility to switch from coal to cleaner natural gas, according to an estimate cited by the Sierra Club NJ.

Yet switching to natural gas wouldn't make power production carbon-neutral, either. An even higher cost-of-carbon would be needed to make it worthwhile for a utility to switch to solar, and an even higher price needed to account for all the carbon a utility company emits in all its operations.

That's why it's imperative that no one becomes the least-bit complacent that the RGGI is doing the full job, even though it's the nation's leader. The carbon cap will need to be reduced considerably, and rules to tighten loopholes and broaden enforcement will need to be strengthened all the time. Simultaneously, the regional initiative must become a national initiative so that the cap-and-trade states don't start chafing against rising power prices relative to other regions.

The level of urgency reached new heights this week, when the Arctic Research Center reported that the underwater permafrost is thawing and releasing methane. This is extremely worrisome. Methane is a many, many times more potent greenhouse gas trapper than carbon. If permafrost thawing has begun its chain reaction, the only hope that life-as-we-know-it will have, would be radical reductions in our emissions across-the-board. All the more reason to super-accelerate RGGI and national approaches to cap-and-trade and every other method available.

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