E&E News: "Cap and Trade Gets a Big Win in Pennsylvania. Will It Last?"
Senior Fellow Karen Palmer remarks on Pennsylvania's recent move to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an interstate cap-and-trade program.
Yet RGGI has continued to expand in recent years, reintroducing New Jersey to its ranks and adding Virginia to the program. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has pledged to withdraw Virginia from RGGI but has been unable to overcome opposition from Senate Democrats in Richmond.
Pennsylvania’s membership would be the biggest addition yet to the program, said Karen Palmer, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future.
“I do think it is a terrific development because I think the states are really the ones moving forward on actually addressing carbon, as opposed to incentives to clean electricity, which is where Congress is headed,” Palmer said. “This is putting a price on carbon in an important part of the economy and, as people move to electrify, it could be even more important.”
