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To slow global warming, we need to ultimately eliminate carbon pollution from power plants. When states work together to cut pollution across party lines, we can make even more progress. That’s why the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative might be the most important climate program you’ve never heard of.
Bipartisan, pollution-reducing action
Since 2008, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has earned bipartisan support for slashing power plant emissions that contribute to global warming.
The initiative (known as RGGI, pronounced “Reggie”) includes 11 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states—states represented by four Republican and seven Democratic governors. These states are providing a model that the rest of the country can follow.
The nation's first offshore wind farm. Block Island Wind Farm, R.I.
Ionna22 via Flickr, CC-BY-SA-4.0
Pollution cut in half, clean energy accelerated
The results so far are promising. The program has contributed to a 60 percent reduction in carbon pollution from power plants in those states since 2005.
“Since its 2005 launch, RGGI has cut emissions, delivered $9 billion in lifetime savings for consumers, and accelerated the region’s transition to cleaner energy,” said Ben Grumbles, Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment and Vice Chair of the RGGI, Inc. Board of Directors in March, 2020.
The program works by capping pollution from power plants, reducing those caps each year so the air keeps getting cleaner and cleaner. It also requires power plant owners to pay for their pollution, which prods them to cut their emissions even faster. Each state can then invest the money raised in energy efficiency and clean energy, which cuts global warming pollution even further.
For example, states have used RGGI funds to weatherize buildings, not only reducing pollution but also making homes and businesses more comfortable and saving people money on their energy bills. Funds have also gone to new solar panels and wind turbines, turbocharging the clean energy revolution throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Growing stronger
At our urging, emboldened by the program’s track record, the RGGI states agreed in December 2017 to make the program even stronger, promising to cut carbon pollution by another third by 2030. The program works so well that New Jersey rejoined, and Virginia became the first southern state in the program. Now we’re mobilizing thousands of citizens to support Pennsylvania joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
But the devil, as always, is in the details. We’re acting as a watchdog, monitoring how states are carrying out the program, and making sure it stays on track. We’ve been working on RGGI since the program was being formed, making sure the focus stays on reducing carbon pollution as quickly and efficiently as possible. We’ve also urged the states to invest the RGGI funds in clean energy and energy efficiency.