{"id":262214,"date":"2023-06-15T12:32:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T10:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262214"},"modified":"2023-06-15T12:32:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T10:32:35","slug":"virginia-one-step-closer-to-withdrawing-from-rggi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262214","title":{"rendered":"Virginia one step closer to withdrawing from RGGI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From\u00a0CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Governor Glenn Youngkin\u2019s pledge to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) was approved on June 7 by the state\u2019s Air Pollution Control Board, raising the prospects that Virginia\u2019s ratepayers may soon be rid of an onerous RGGI-related carbon tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s common-sense vote by the Air Board to repeal RGGI protects Virginians from the failed program that is not only a regressive tax on families, but also does nothing to reduce pollution,\u201d Youngkin, a Republican, said in a statement after the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that Youngkin\u2019s proposal has cleared the Air Pollution Control Board, it will move to an executive review period, after which it is expected to be posted in the Virginia Register<\/em>. Once it is posted in its final form, environmental groups favorable to RGGI are expected to file lawsuits challenging the governor\u2019s move. The state\u2019s administrative procedures, coupled with the threatened lawsuits, mean Virginia\u2019s exit from RGGI will still take some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RGGI is a regional compact among 12 mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. As part of RGGI\u2019s cap-and-trade program, participating states require power plants of a certain capacity to purchase allowances, also called credits, to emit carbon dioxide (CO2). Virginia joined RGGI in 2021 under Governor Ralph Northam (D).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trumpeted as a way for Virginians to combat climate change, participation in RGGI, however, contains a legal stipulation that has come back to haunt the program. The 2020 law that \u201cauthorized,\u201d but did not mandate, Virginia to join the compact included language saying the costs of allowances purchased through RGGI would be deemed \u201cenvironmental compliance costs\u201d that may be recovered from ratepayers from the state\u2019s largest utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RGGI\u2019s Carbon Tax<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, what was sold as a cap-and-tax plan became a cap-and-tax scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe imposition of the RGGI \u2018carbon tax\u2019 fails to offer any incentive to change behavior,\u201d a 2022 Youngkin administration report noted. \u201cCurrent law allows power generators, such as Dominion Energy, to pass on all their costs for the carbon credits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dominion Energy imposed, but later removed, the surcharge from its Virginia customers\u2019 monthly bills. But despite the Air Pollution Control Board\u2019s recent decision, the surcharge could be reimposed as early as September 1, 2023, and run for 12 months while the courts decide the fate of Youngkin\u2019s action. As noted by Steve Haner of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, \u201cthe tax will still be on electricity bills and very visible\u201d while the litigation sorts itself out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current RGGI participants are New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia. Participating states decide individually how they will disburse the funds raised by periodic auctions of RGGI allowances. \u201cIn Virginia most proceeds from the sale of allowances \u2013 which have reached nearly $590 million so far \u2013 are divvied up between efforts to assist localities affected by recurrent flooding and sea-level rise and a state-administered account to support energy efficiency programs for low-income individuals,\u201d the Associated Press<\/em> noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The division of the spoils is designed to create support for the program by assuring a flow of cash to carefully selected constituencies. In the case of the energy efficiency programs for low-income people, however, whatever benefits \u2013 if any \u2013 they derive from the program must compete with the higher monthly power bills resulting from the RGGI carbon tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Dog Chasing Its Tail<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than redistributing money coerced from third parties, forcing people to pay higher electricity bills, and keeping the \u201cclimate change\u201d beat going, what exactly have RGGI and like-minded schemes accomplished?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorldwide, despite feverish efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the CO2 in the atmosphere keeps rising, even as U.S. emissions have been dropping for decades, long before RGGI came to Virginia,\u201d the Thomas Jefferson Institute\u2019s Haner points out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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