Five years ago, Virginia joined a coalition of states working to reduce carbon emissions through a market-based cap-and-trade program called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Lawmakers made climate change a point of emphasis in that session and reasoned that Virginia entering the multistate compact would pay long-term dividends.
They were correct, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin had other plans. After taking office, he moved to withdraw the commonwealth from RGGI in a move a judge concluded was taken illegally. As litigation regarding that regulatory action continued through the courts, Virginia voters went to the polls in November and elevated Abigail Spanberger to the Governor’s Mansion.
She, with the help of lawmakers and new Attorney General Jay Jones, immediately took steps to restore Virginia’s membership, a move that will allow Virginia to share the program’s revenue and invest in resilience and energy efficiency in the near future. That will benefit Hampton Roads and the whole of the commonwealth.
Climate scientists and researchers have long argued that avoiding the worst effects of a warming planet would require the world to keep rising global temperatures from reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Numerous studies concluded that missing that goal would lead to uncertainty and instability — extreme weather events, prolonged droughts and flooding, unpredictable conditions for food production and a host of other issues.
That now appears certain and average global temperatures may soon reach 2 degrees above the threshold, another worrisome milestone. As the Trump administration pulls the United States from international climate agreements, goes all-in on fossil fuels, and abdicates our leadership on the global stage, it’s more important than ever for states to do what they can to limit emissions and invest in resilience.
That’s especially true in Hampton Roads, which is already experiencing some of the worst climate-related flooding of any place in the country. Sea levels are rising and our land is sinking, creating conditions that imperil vulnerable communities and put parts of our region at risk. We’re in danger of seeing an exodus of insurers and housing market contraction as recurrent flooding and extreme weather render some places uninhabitable.
Returning to RGGI alone won’t solve those problems. But it is a start.
The compact is a partnership of 10 states that requires energy producers to reduce their emissions or purchase allowances through auctions to exceed them. It is a market-based program that incentivizes greenhouse emission reductions to avoid the purchase of allowances.
Proceeds from those auctions are then divided among the member states, which can use the windfall as each sees fit. In Virginia, the money is divided between the Housing Innovations in Energy Efficiency fund, for improving energy efficiency in new and existing residences of low-income residents, and the Community Flood Preparedness Fund, which funds projects to address flooding concerns.
Between 2021, when Virginia formally entered RGGI, and 2023, when Youngkin withdrew from the compact, the commonwealth received $828 million from those auctions. The former governor did not propose a plan to fully fund that lost revenue, meaning that energy efficiency programs and flood reliance programs had to do with less.
That’s not a viable long-term solution for Hampton Roads, which collectively has an estimated $40 billion in climate-related flooding needs to protect low-lying communities. While the region and the commonwealth continue to make some progress to address those, membership in RGGI will help provide the funding to match the urgency of need here.
It’s true, as detractors point out, that customers of companies such as Dominion share in the costs, and Virginians paid about $4.40 a month before the commonwealth was removed from RGGI. That number could be higher now, depending on how membership is handled.
But the program has worked to reduce emissions and provides millions that are protecting homes, businesses and critical infrastructure in Hampton Roads and elsewhere. The benefits outweigh the costs, and a return to the program is the legal, rightful outcome for the commonwealth’s future.
