Center for Resource Solutions Launches North America’s First Environmental Tracking Network for Renewable Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Center for Resource Solutions Launches North America’s First Environmental Tracking Network for Renewable Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF (March 7, 2008) — In coordination with two regional environmental tracking systems, the Center for Resource Solutions today launched the Environmental Tracking Network of North America (ETNNA) – North America’s first network organization for renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions tracking systems and registries.
ETNNA will bring together electricity tracking systems, emissions registries, governmental regulators, and interested market participants to promote the coordination and cooperation among environmental tracking systems throughout North America. Such coordination will encourage trade, create a common currency for certificates of generation, prevent double-counting, and support existing and emerging markets for renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions.

ETNNA’s role will be particularly beneficial as regional environmental markets continue to grow and collide. By helping resolve compatibility and coordination issues between tracking systems, ETNNA will facilitate the growth of the markets they support.

“This is the first organization of its kind to offer a forum that brings together stakeholders and tracking systems covering this broad geographic scope-across the U.S., Canada and Mexico,” said John Pappas, Chairperson of the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS) Committee.

As part of the group’s launch, the Environmental Tracking Network is announcing two initial meetings, open to the public. Details on the meetings can be found below or by visiting www.etnna.org.

March 10, 2008: A webinar kick-off meeting to introduce the organization and Board members, explain the benefits of membership, and discuss a short list of issues related to tracking systems.

April 14-15, 2008: The first in-person meeting at the PG&E Energy Center in San Francisco to discuss the treatment of environmental attributes in certificate tracking systems. This initial meeting and subsequent meetings will result in a best practices consensus paper on this topic.

About the Environmental Tracking Network of North America
Before becoming its own organization, the Environmental Tracking Network was a working group program under the Center for Resource Solutions known as the North American Association of Issuing Bodies (NAAIB). This working group has been regularly meeting since 2005 and contributed three papers on Best Practices for tracking system operators. In 2006, the working group reached consensus to formalize the program as its own organization. In Winter 2007, the Center for Resource Solutions received seed funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to launch the Environmental Tracking Network.

The Environmental Tracking Network’s Board of Directors includes John Pappas of the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS) and PG&E as Chairperson; Paul Helgeson of the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) and PSC of Wisconsin as Vice Chairperson; Carrie Cullen Hitt of Constellation NewEnergy as Secretary/Treasurer, and Lenny Hochschild of Evolution Markets. Jan Hamrin, president of the Center for Resource Solutions was appointed acting Secretary General of the Environmental Tracking Network.