Credit Registry
Related Research
EPRI researchers routinely collaborate to address complex, inter-related issues associated with water & air quality in the United States. The following EPRI projects represent work that relates to and supports the Ohio River Basin Trading Project.
- Water Quality and Watershed Protection
- Water Availability and Resource Risk Management
- Effluent Guidelines and Water Quality Management
- Global Energy and Climate Policy Costs & Benefits
- Air Quality Assessment of Ozone, Particulate Matter, Visibility, and Deposition
- Developing GHG Emissions Offsets by Reducing Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Agricultural Crop Production: Experience Validating a
New GHG Offset Protocol
- EPRI Water Prism Decision Support System
View the Ohio River Basin Trading Project’s online credit trading registry .
A credit registry is a tracking system that follows a credit from creation to sale to retirement. The credit registry provides checks and balances to ensure that a water quality credit is being created and used as intended. The online registry provides security measures similar to online banking. In one on-line location:
- A project developer can enter information about a project,
- EPRI watershed models can calculate specific trade ratios for each transaction,
- Verifiers can indicate that best management practices have been implemented on the ground,
- State agencies can certify that a credit is available for use in regulatory compliance,
- Credit buyers can search for and purchase credits, and
- Stakeholders can view public information on projects.
This credit registry is a key component of a water quality trading program that includes participants and regulators across multiple states and agencies.
In August of 2012, USDA Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Harris Sherman announced that EPRI received a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) of $1 million to deploy a an innovative, secure and proven online credit
registry to support the pilot program in the Ohio River Basin Water Quality Trading Project. This will be the third CIG project grant since 2009. The 2012 grant funding added a key component that is critical to the long-term success of water
quality trading in the region: transparent, efficient and robust market infrastructure. This infrastructure, provided by Markit, was launched in March of 2013 and includes a sophisticated and defensible credit registry (see screenshot
below ), documentation flow tools, and a secure transaction platform. Credits are assigned unique serial numbers to ensure diligent tracking, verification and monitoring. The registry system tracks credits through the credit lifecycle
and provides appropriate public access to the documentation for each credit listing. Markit has been named Best Registry Provider for four consecutive years in an annual survey conducted by Environmental Finance magazine and we are proud to
be working with them on this effort. View video introducing the credit registry 
