From the NYTimes editorial page:
... New Jersey, under its new governor, Phil Murphy, a Democrat, will join — more precisely, rejoin — the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a consortium of nine Eastern and New England states that has achieved substantial emissions reductions from large power plants since its start in 2009. ...
RGGI (pronounced “Reggie”) has, in fact, a Republican pedigree, dating back to 2003, when Gov. George Pataki of New York invited other Northeast governors to join a regional effort to reduce carbon emissions. What followed was a regionwide system that sets a declining cap on emissions from large power plants — about 170 in total — and requires individual power producers to buy permits from state governments to pollute. As the cap declines, the price of the permits rises, giving utilities an incentive to find cheaper ways to reduce emissions.
According to various studies, power plant emissions have declined 40 percent since 2009, while the sale of the permits has raised $2.7 billion that’s been invested in efficiency measures and renewable energy. Some of these reductions would have occurred anyway as plants shifted from coal to cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas, and the reductions are a small fraction of the total greenhouse gases generated in the nine-state region. Even so, it’s a well-designed program that will only get stronger; last August, the nine states agreed to reduce emissions a further 30 percent by 2030. A national program along similar lines passed the House in 2009 but never came to a vote in the Senate.
This reminds of that time when John McCain was campaigning for President on cap-and-trade and ... oh, nevermind.
