RGGI Posts

This page lists my posts on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI is a cap and auction program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the electric sector.

Proponents tout RGGI as a successful program because participating states have “cut carbon pollution from their power plants by more than half, improved public health by cutting dangerous air pollutants like soot and smog, invested more than $3 billion into their energy economies, and created tens of thousands of new job-years”.  Others have pointed out that RGGI was not the driving factor for the observed emission reductions.  My latest evaluation of New York RGGI results found that the investments from RGGI auction proceeds were only directly responsible for 3% of the total observed annual reductions over the baseline to 2023 timeframe and that those investments reduced emissions at a rate of $818 per ton of CO2.  The primary driver of observed reductions was cost-efficient fuel switching from coal and residual oil to natural gas not RGGI.  I concluded that RGGI successfully raised money but has not provided cost-effective emission reductions or has had much to do with the observed CO2 emission reductions in the electric generating sector of the NE United States.  This page contains links to all my RGGI articles.

RGGI started in 2009 and the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont have participated ever since.  New Jersey was included at the start of the program, dropped out and re-joined in 2020.  Virginia joined in 2021 but now appears to be getting out.  Pennsylvania is in their state process to join once all the litigation is settled.  In this cap and invest program allowances are auctioned and the investments are supposed to be invested in programs to reduce emissions.

I have been involved in the RGGI program process since its inception. Before retirement from a non-regulated generating company, I was actively analyzing air quality regulations that could affect company operations and was responsible for the emissions data used for compliance. As a result, I have a niche understanding of the information necessary to critique RGGI. The opinions expressed in these posts do not reflect the position of any of my previous employers or any other company I have been associated with, these comments are mine alone.

The following are my posts on RGGI. Note that I update the status of emission leakage, investment proceeds and allowance holdings reports regularly.

RGGI Posts