On December 6, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced S. 2423, the Emission Allowance Market Transparency Act of 2007, to facilitate price transparency in markets that sell emission allowances. In introducing the bill, Feinstein said that, in order to facilitate emission allocation price transparency for any pollutants (including any greenhouse gas), the legislation will take into consideration the public interest, integrity of those markets, fair competition and the full protection of consumers.
The bill gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to promulgate key information regarding the availability and prices of emission allowances to state regulatory authorities, buyers and sellers of the allowances and the general public. Additionally, the bill would monitor trading for manipulation and fraud and enforce limits on the total number of emission credits that can be held by a single company at one time.