Environmentalists are suing to thwart Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s attempt to pull Virginia from a greenhouse gas initiative after the state saw two years of carbon reduction success.
from Virginia power plants have declined by 16.8 percent in the first two years of participation," the lawsuit stated.
Virginia's Air Pollution Control Board voted 4-3 in June to repeal Virginia’s participation in RGGI . Virginia's Republican governor has made withdrawal from the compact a priority, citing its impact on the cost of electricity. The State Corporation Commission has estimated the typical monthly bill could increase by $2.00 to $2.50 for the years 2027 to 2030.
The Southern Environmental Law Center has filed a lawsuit to stop Gov. Glenn Youngkin from pulling Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.argue that the board lacked the authority to withdraw from the initiative because it was the General Assembly that voted in 2020 to join the compact.In a statement issued through the governor’s office, Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources Travis Voyles called RGGI a"regressive tax" that doesn’t incentivize emissions reductions.
RGGI is an effort by mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to reduce power plants’ carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade system. It requires power plants of a certain generating capacity to purchase allowances to emit carbon dioxide. The greenhouse gas contributes to global warming, which scientists say is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extreme weather.
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