(Updated: 5:32 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a nine-state bipartisan climate accord, has reached consensus on a new plan aimed at reducing carbon emissions levels by 30 percent by 2030.
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The market-based, cap-and-trade agreement, dubbed “RGGI,” includes Rhode Island and eight other Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. Carbon emissions are bought and sold based on allowances, giving power plants the legal authority to emit carbon. The levels are capped at a certain amount each year.
The new RGGI agreement, which reduces the current cap by 30 percent relative to 2020 levels by 2030, was made on Wednesday after nearly two years of negotiations. The participating states are led by both Democratic and Republican administrations.
The consensus was met with praise from Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, whose state has received $57.6 million through RGGI since 2008.
“As a coastal state, Rhode Island is uniquely vulnerable to climate change,” Raimondo said in prepared remarks. “I’m taking executive action to endorse RGGI’s stronger, regional approach to climate change.”
The agreement must still pass some regulatory proceedings, and a public meeting has been set for Sept. 25. The new plan would go into effect in 2021, beginning with a regional cap of 75 million tons of carbon allowances.
The allowances, which are bought and sold through quarterly auctions, would decline 2.3 million tons – or 3 percent of the original level – each subsequent year resulting in a 30 percent reduction by 2030.
The environmental community praised the new plan, as renewable energy advocates for months have felt downward pressure from President Donald Trump. The first-term president is an advocate of fossil fuel industries, and earlier this year removed the United States from the international carbon-cutting initiative: The Paris Accord.
“In the face of the Trump administration’s ongoing attempts to undermine solutions to climate change, nine governors – Republicans and Democrats alike – doubled-down on a clean energy future for their citizens. RGGI’s bold plan will significantly cut power plant pollution while creating new benefits to the economy and people’s health,” said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York.
The new plan also includes a mechanism for states to withhold allowances if auction prices are determined too low. The new tool is designed to boost RGGI proceeds to states, which have dwindled in recent years.
Indeed, Rhode Island in June received about $683,712 through the quarterly auction, representing an 81.8 percent reduction from its peak receipt of $3.8 million in September 2015.
“The RGGI program is an important part of our work in Rhode Island to address a changing climate and to invest in clean energy,” said Janet Coit, director of the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
Coit and Marion Gold, commissioner of the R.I. Public Utilities Commission, represent Rhode Island’s interest on Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Inc., the nonprofit that administers the multistate accord.
As a funding source, RGGI has worked well in Rhode Island for about a decade, and has provided participating states more than $2.7 billion since its inception. But it has done little to deliver on one of its key promises: reduce greenhouse gasses. Indeed, the cap on emission allowances has historically stayed above actual emission levels.
The dynamic was pointed out in a 2017 study by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan research arm of U.S. Congress, which was critical of RGGI’s efficacy as a carbon-cutting tool.
“From a practical standpoint, the RGGI program’s contribution to directly reducing the global accumulation of emissions in the atmosphere is arguably negligible,” according to the study.
Nonetheless, state officials and renewable energy advocates argue the proceeds from the initiative have helped fund alternative-energy projects and energy-efficiency programs that help drive down carbon emissions.
Rhode Island has set a policy to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050, but is currently way off track, according to a recent analysis. And state officials have no system of telling how much RGGI and this new deal will impact future carbon emissions in Rhode Island.
“Given the regional nature of the grid, we have no way to predict what the demand on local generation resources might be at any given time,” Coit said in a statement. “The power mix and emissions in any one state can decrease or increase over any given period even while regional emissions decrease overall.”
Coit, however, is hopeful the program will be part of the carbon-cutting solution moving forward.
“Reducing the emissions cap by 30 percent from 2020 to 2030, in particular, will ensure this successful program continues to drive down harmful emissions to promote a cleaner energy system well into the future,” Coit said.
Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.
