Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative: Democrats’ misguided, expensive approach to energy production

Shortly before being sworn in as the 74th governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin pledged to pull Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, also known as RGGI. Youngkin called RGGI “a bad deal for Virginians and a bad deal for Virginia businesses.” Gov. Youngkin made good on his promise to pull the Commonwealth out of this harmful agreement, ending two years of higher costs that did nothing for the environment.

In 2020, Virginia Democrats had total control in Richmond, with majorities in both chambers of the legislature and all three elected seats in the executive branch. As one of their top legislative priorities of that session, they joined the cap-and-spend program in what then-Gov. Ralph Northam said was an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. What Democrats didn’t mention was how much this boondoggle would cost Virginians in the form of higher power bills.

Republicans repeatedly warned that RGGI was nothing but a Green New Deal-style agreement that forces Virginia to follow the out-of-touch and unaffordable standards imposed by California liberals. That’s why Virginia Republicans introduced Senate Bill 1001 this year, which would have repealed the 2020 Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act, definitively removing Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Unfortunately, this bill was blocked on a party-line vote by Democrats in the Senate.

In doing so, Democrats are ignoring a stark reality: RGGI does not live up to their ultimate goal of reducing carbon emissions — in fact, it increases them. According to data reported by the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to provide electricity to customers in Virginia has grown. Despite two years of RGGI caps and taxes, total CO2 emissions did not shrink, but increased by 3.7 million tons.

RGGI embodies the misguided energy production agenda embraced by the Biden administration. Since joining RGGI, Virginia has been more reliant on importing electricity than ever before. During the two-year period, electricity consumption within the state grew to 130 million megawatt hours, up 11 percent. Yet, electricity imports grew from 14 million megawatt hours (MWH) in 2020 to more than 39 million MWH in 2022, up 280 percent.

Why? RGGI has pushed power production from fossil fuels used by Virginia to other non-RGGI states, just as it has for the other member states. In other words, RGGI in fact did not eliminate fossil fuel production — it simply exported that energy to other states.

Pulling Virginia from RGGI shows Republicans’ commitment to creating a better Commonwealth by prioritizing American energy production while reducing costs for Virginians. This November, voters will have a choice: let Democrats mandate their Green New Deal agenda onto them or elect more state Republicans who will fight for affordable, reliable, and diverse energy production.

Terry Kilgore is the majority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates