Keeping the Lights on in the State Laboratory

This briefing evaluates five methods for accounting for state-level greenhouse gas emission reductions and preventing 'leakage' within a potential United States federal cap-and-trade program.

• To maintain state-level innovation and emission reductions after the implementation of a federal cap-and-trade program, the federal system must account for state actions by retiring federal greenhouse gas emission allowances, which makes them ineligible for future use or trading.
• Failure to retire allowances to reflect state-achieved reductions leads to 'emissions leakage,' where state actions simply increase the availability of allowances for sale in other states, resulting in no net environmental benefit.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Keeping the Lights on in the State Laboratory. https://www.wri.org/research/keeping-lights-state-laboratory

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Keeping the Lights on in the State Laboratory. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/keeping-lights-state-laboratory.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Keeping the Lights on in the State Laboratory |url=https://www.wri.org/research/keeping-lights-state-laboratory |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendkeeping, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Keeping the Lights on in the State Laboratory}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/keeping-lights-state-laboratory}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }