A Virginia circuit court ruled Wednesday that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin unlawfully steered the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), potentially paving the way for the state to lower greenhouse gas emissions and regain access to tens of millions of dollars to fight climate change.
Youngkin “may only do what is permitted by statute,” Judge C. Randall Lowe wrote in his decision, finding that the General Assembly would have to pass a new law to remove Virginia from the cooperative agreement in which 11 states make utilities pay fees for exceeding caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Youngkin’s “putative repeal of the RGGI Regulation is unlawful,” Lowe found.
“The wrong has been righted in this moment,” said Billy Weitzenfeld, the recently retired former executive director of the Association of Energy Conservation Professionals, which brought the lawsuit. “This is a nice retirement gift.”
The Association of Energy Conservation Professionals was represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) in the case.
Christian Martinez, Youngkin’s press secretary, said the governor intends to appeal the ruling. “We respectfully disagree with the judge’s decision,” Martinez said in an email. “Governor Youngkin remains committed to lowering the cost of living for Virginians by continuing to oppose the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which fails to effectively incentivize emission reductions in the Commonwealth. Instead, it functions as a regressive tax, hidden in utility bills, passed on to all Virginians.”
Independent economists dispute Youngkin’s description of the regional compact.
RGGI (pronounced reggie) is a “cap-and-invest” system in which Eastern states take part in a market mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Virginia was the first southern state to join the program.
Under RGGI, fossil fuel power plants with a capacity greater than or equal to 25 megawatts must purchase “allowances” commensurate with their emissions, giving the companies an incentive to decrease those emissions over time. An overall limit, or cap, on the states’ emissions is reduced year by year as the allowances are traded within the market.
Since 2005, RGGI states “have reduced annual power sector emissions 50%, which is almost 50% faster than the nation as a whole,” according to the regional compact’s website. The participating states have so far raised over $7 billion from the utilities in allowances.
When state lawmakers brought Virginia into RGGI in 2020 under the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act, they added two major provisions: 50 percent of the money had to be spent on energy efficiency programs in low-income communities, and another 45 percent had to go toward helping communities affected by sea-level rise and flooding.
From 2020 to 2023, when Virginia was a member of RGGI, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data shows the commonwealth’s power sector emissions dropped by almost 22 percent. The state raised $827.7 million in that time, according to an analysis by the Virginia Conservation Network.
The Association of Energy Conservation Professionals, a trade association, relies almost entirely on money from RGGI to fund its weatherization work across Virginia. “The fact that the governor’s administration picked this fight is a real disservice,” Weitzenfeld said. Private contractors across the state and the communities they work in benefit from these funds, he added, and without them, “the future looked very dim.”
“This ruling puts Virginia back on track to address and adapt to climate change at a critical moment.”
— Nate Benforado, Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney
To take Virginia out of RGGI, fulfilling a campaign promise, Youngkin issued an executive order requiring the state’s Department of Environmental Quality to reassess Virginia’s participation in RGGI, and draft an “emergency regulation” for the State Air Pollution Control Board to vote on. The air board voted 4-3 to leave RGGI.
In the lawsuit, the Southern Environmental Law Center argued on the association’s behalf that Youngkin could not remove Virginina from RGGI through the executive branch, as the state had been brought into the agreement by the legislature.
“Future generations deserve a livable climate,” Nate Benforado, a senior SELC attorney who litigated the case, said in a statement. “This ruling puts Virginia back on track to address and adapt to climate change at a critical moment, while bringing in critically needed funding to help Virginians all across the Commonwealth.”
“The Youngkin Administration’s illegal actions taking Virginia out of this program benefited no one except our state’s biggest polluters,” said Michael Town, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, in a statement following the court’s ruling. “The end result of this illegal rollback was dirtier air, more communities left exposed to floodwaters, and fewer tools to help Virginians cut energy costs. We are incredibly pleased with this ruling and hope to see Virginia rejoin RGGI as soon as possible.”
Weitzenfeld said he was relieved to be going into an appeal with a favorable ruling in hand. “It’s a wonderful day for everyone in Virginia.”
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