Virginia’s recent RGGI membership is the focus of this website, which focuses on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Still, last year, Virginia Governor Younkin announced that he intended to withdraw from the program, and this year, he is in the process of withdrawing from RGGI by December despite it being passed into law in Virginia. Virginia should not leave the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, RGGI, because the goals of clean energy and economic benefit to Virginia consumers would be harmed otherwise. Further, Governor Younkin published an Executive Order seeking the Virginia State Environmental Board to withdraw the state from RGGI participation. Given that Virginia’s participation was passed into law, the action should not be a political issue subject to the politics of the state Governor’s office, but by the action of the state legislature. According to Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality, the cumulative proceeds from its first auction in March 2021 totaled around $452 million. (Virginia DEQ, 1)
Picture credit: Aerial Views of Dominion Virginia Power/Chesterfield Power Station – Chester, Va., Youtube helifyer7
