New York Needs to Remain a Leader on RGGI
Governor David Paterson should continue New York’s leadership in RGGI
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a partnership among 10 Northeastern states to limit global warming pollution from power plants using a cap-and-trade system. RGGI covers electric power plants located in all six New England states, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. The permit program, which went into effect on January 1, 2009, caps the total emissions allowed from the states’ electricity plants at the same level through 2014 and then reduces it by 10 percent by 2019. Each plant will have to obtain a permit, or an allowance, for each ton of carbon dioxide it emits.
UCS believes that RGGI includes several design elements that set key precedents for a national cap-and-trade program. The states are auctioning most of the permits, rather than giving them to polluters for free. The states also plan to spend most auction revenue on programs that help homeowners, businesses, and industries make their buildings more energy efficient and initiatives that support the development of renewable energy sources.
In mid-March, the New York Times broke the story that Governor Paterson apparently made a secret promise to an electric power industry trade group, Independent Power Producers of NY (IPPNY). He promised he would re-open the state’s RGGI regulation—which was then in the process of being finalized by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)—after the program’s launch, for the purpose of drastically increasing the number of permits given away for free to certain kinds of generators.
One of UCS’s coalition allies in the state learned of this early in the week during a meeting with the governor’s staff on other issues. They and another environmental group pushed back with a letter on Wednesday asking for a meeting to get clarification.
But in the Times story on Friday, the lobbyist for IPPNY admits that when he felt he was not getting anywhere with the DEC (during the rulemaking public comment period) he went directly to the governor, and exacted the promise.
UCS joined a coalition a press release on Monday calling Governor Paterson on the carpet for this backroom deal.
Fortunately, the governor cannot simply change the rule, i.e. immediately increase the number of permits allocated directly to generators. The state must follow its own State Administrative Procedures Act, re-open the rule, have a public comment period, etc. The coalition’s current strategy is to push back hard and dissuade the governor from initiating that process at all.
Read the New York Times article.
Read the New York Times editorial.
(For a report on the consequences of global warming in the Northeast by the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment, a two-year collaboration between UCS and a team of more than 50 independent scientists and economists, go to Northeast Climate Choices.)
