For those who don’t know, the RGGI was initially proposed by Governor Pataki as a way to deal with the absence of leadership in Washington. Former Governor Romney initially supported RGGI, but backed out at the last moment. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont are currently members, with Maryland scheduled to join this year. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania,D.C. and the Northeastern Provinces of Canada are observers. California is considering joining the RGGI, and seven Midwestern states are considering the RGGI.
My understanding is that Governor Patrick doesn’t need legislation to sign us up. The RGGI has strong political, business, and civic support. It’s a limited answer, and is certainly no substitute for national action on climate change. Joining, however, would be a powerful statement that Massachusetts intends to take a leading role in energy and the environment.
As the Governor said at Meehan’s Town Hall meeting on climate change in December, “We will join RGGI.” He was quite unambiguous about it.
<
p>
He reminded me at that meeting, and again yesterday, what an incredible speaker he is. I really hope that his inspirational leadership leads to results.
it would be nice if Massachusetts’ joining of RGGI might help persuade RI or MD or DC to join. If they join, maybe Pennsylvania joins. Maybe then it can push farther — perhaps Virginia or North Carolina, for example.
<
p>
Maybe success will induce Oregon and Washington to join up with California’s project. Before you know it, you’d have a large number of US House members from states with greenhouse gas initiatives (a smaller percentage of senators).
<
p>
Just keep hammering away at it, and hope we can get other states to be a part of the solution.
<
p> * As a side note, the coal belt of OH-KY-WV-TN will make it much harder for RGGI to ever get off the Atlantic.
PA would be great since they burn dirtier coal (yes, I know it’s more of a general pollution issue but every piece of the puzzle helps). It would great to also push to involve midwestern states will help with air quality here and global climate change everywhere.
the farther you push into that coal belt, the more resistance you’ll get. Data from 1999 (yeah, it’s old… but it hasn’t changed much since coal hasn’t really gotten more expensive).
<
p>
Pennsylvania: 57% of elec from coal.
Ohio: 86% of elec from coal.
Kentucky: 96% of elec from coal.
West Virginia: 99% of elec from coal.
<
p>
Think they’re going to be happy about tightening the screws on coal fired power plants? Me neither.