IN a brief news item over the weekend, it was announced that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has established a green energy auction reserve, or GEAR, price for the impending GEA for waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities. The GEAR price is essentially the ceiling price for electricity produced by facilities subject to the auction, and is intended as a guide to prospective bidders so that they can determine whether a project will be economically attractive or not.