Strategies for carbon dioxide emissions reductions: Residential natural gas efficiency, economic, and ancillary health impacts in Maryland

As part of its commitments to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the State of Maryland, USA, auctions emission permits to electric utilities, creating revenue that can be used to benefit consumers and the environment. This paper explores the CO2 emissions reductions that may be possible by allocating some of that revenue to foster efficiency improvements in the residential sector’s use of natural gas. Since these improvements will require changes to the capital stock of houses and end use equipment, efficiency improvements may be accompanied by economic and ancillary health impacts, both of which are quantified in this paper.