(Photo credit: California Air Resources Board)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – State regulators plan to release the results of California’s first auction of greenhouse gas emission permits, which officially kick-started the state’s new carbon marketplace.

The California Air Resources Board on Monday was scheduled to reveal the price companies paid for the permits – called allowances – and how many businesses participated in the program.

California’s cap-and-trade plan is a central piece of the state’s 2006 global warming law, a suite of regulations meant to dramatically reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Businesses are required to either cut emissions to cap levels or buy allowances from other companies for each extra ton of pollution discharged annually.

Petroleum refiners, manufacturing companies and other industries have been outspoken opponents of the program, calling it an illegal tax that will hurt California’s economic recovery.