This Week from Del. Matt Fariss

Last Wednesday, Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin announced his intention to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI is an 11-state, cap-and-trade program designed to reduce carbon emissions, which funds various environmental and energy policy priorities through a carbon allowance auction.

RGGI sets the total amount of carbon dioxide that power plants can emit, and then utilities buy the rights to emit that carbon at auction. While cap and trade has been used successfully in the past to control pollutants that cause acid rain, carbon is a different element altogether.

It was well documented long before Virginia joined the program that it would have a negligible impact on climate change. Said simply, the changes in emissions are too minuscule to move the needle. Virginia is part of a power grid that extends outside of the RGGI region, so they meet electricity needs by running power plants that aren’t subject to RGGI’s caps.

While the benefits are negligible, the costs are not. Virginia families and businesses are paying more for power, fuel and everything else. Dominion Energy recently received authority to increase the amount they charge to cover RGGI costs by 83 percent.

There’s more to this in the current issue of the Times Virginian newspaper. Support local journalism by purchasing the issue at a local newsstand or subscribing at www.timesvirginian.com/subscriber_services to receive the print edition or view the full article in the e-edition version.