Tag Archives: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)

What Is Promised vs What The Numbers Actually Say

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On Monday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger’s decision to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

The article reports:

Democratic Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger’s decision to reenter her state into a controversial green energy program is projected to cost Virginians nearly $1.2 billion over the next two years, due to higher electric bills, despite Spanberger’s claim that the move was about “cost savings” and “lowering bills for families who need help most,” according to state filings.

Spanberger’s Republican predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, had pulled Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in 2022, calling it a hidden and “regressive” tax that disproportionately impacted lower-income families.

The RGGI, which critics say functions like a carbon tax, forces utility companies in participating states—11 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, all but one with a Democratic governor—to pay states for greenhouse gases they emit. The states are then supposed to reinvest that money into green energy programs, including so-called environmental justice programs that make the homes of lower-income families more energy efficient. That would, the theory goes, eventually lower these families’ electric bills.

Spanberger, who ran as a moderate Democrat in 2024 but since entering the governor’s mansion has pulled the state sharply to the left, quickly rejoined the RGGI.

The article notes:

Dominion Energy, the state’s main electricity provider, calculated RGGI’s shocking $1.2 billion price tag for Virginians based on the number of “allowances” it would be forced to buy to account for the carbon emissions from its power plants, according to the filings it submitted this month with state regulators.

Typically, power companies subject to the RGGI simply pass down the costs to their customers. Dominion said the $1.2 billion allowance cost would be applied to residential bills in the form of a surcharge, increasing the average Virginian household’s electric bill by roughly $13 per month, or 7.5 percent. Virginia’s State Corporation Commission must approve that surcharge before Dominion can implement it.

Green energy programs are generally NOT about green energy. They are generally about funneling money to entitles and friends who make large donations to Democrat candidates.

Elections Have Consequences

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The election of Virginia Governor Youngkin has already had an impact beyond Virginia. Heeded or not, the election was a wake-up call for the radical leftist agenda being pushed in Washington, D.C. The election itself was important, but the policies that Governor Youngkin enacts will also have an impact on America’s future.

On Saturday, Fox News reported the following:

Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin of Virginia has signaled his intention to pull the state out of a climate compact that many small businesses there are glad to see go.

Youngkin has made clear his intention to pull Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The interstate compact places penalties on entities that exceed emission regulations set by an organization representing all member states.

The article concludes:

The RGGI currently boasts eleven member states in the initiative, all from the northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.

The RGGI is currently being courted by Pennsylvania for membership. It boasts itself as the “first market-based, cap-and-invest regional initiative in the United States.”

The Cato Institute puts out an index of personal and economic freedom annually. The Sixth Edition (2021) has a list of states according to the “Miscellaneous Regulatory Freedom Score.” The least regulated state on that list is Arizona, the most regulated is North Carolina. Of the states in the RGGI, Connecticut ranks 31, Delware 29, Maine 33, Maryland 42, Massachusetts 49, New Hampshire 6, New Jersey 41, New York 47, Rhode Island 30, Vermont 14, and Virginia 20.

It appears to me that the RGGI is simply the latest cap and trade proposal put in place by the Democrats. To learn some interesting history on the cap and trade scams of the past, please read the article from August 2010 about what happened to the Chicago Climate Exchange when the Democrats were predicted to lose the majority in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, much of the talk of the environment is actually a smoke screen for hidden financial interests and governmental quests for more power.