By the end of this calendar year, a court may determine if Virginia will remain a member of a multi-state environmental compact.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, also called RGGI, is perhaps best known here in Virginia for taking money from utilities that emit carbon dioxide and distributing it to victims of flooding in Hurley in southwest Virginia. Governor Glenn Youngkin campaigned on a platform of Virginia leaving the multi-state compact, although Aimee Curtright at the Rand Corporation says the logic behind the exit plan seems political.
"There's some concern about if you join RGGI, you're going to be losing business to neighboring states," Curtright says. "Now, there's not a lot of evidence that that's happening. But, conversely if states pull out and aren't participating in it, it becomes less effective and it doesn't move us closer to meeting our climate change goals."
The Southern Environmental Law Center has a lawsuit that could force Virginia to stay in RGGI, and Tim Cywinski at the Sierra Club says the governor does not have the authority to dissolve the marriage by himself.
"Basic civics will tell you that you need the legislature to repeal a law. Governor Youngkin can't act unilaterally to do it," says Cywinski. "But he seems to think that he can. I think that the rule of law is going to prove him wrong."
The existing contract with RGGI expires at the end of the calendar year. After that, what happens might be up to the courts. Either the governor gets his way and the contract ends, or the courts could force Virginia to extend the contract and stay in the multi-state compact.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
