Environmentalists and consumer groups urge states to close loopholes and make program a success story
As the new home of RIPIRG's environmental work, Environment Rhode Island can be contacted regarding this news release.
PROVIDENCE–
Top officials from nine Northeastern states are meeting in Providence,
Rhode Island this week, trying to finalize a plan to cut global warming
pollution from the region’s power plants. The plan, known as the
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), would set up a regional cap
and trade system for carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector.
“We
are encouraged that the states are moving forward with this program and
hope we will able to give the final plan our full support. But we
remain concerned that current proposal would not yield any emission
reductions from power plants and is far too generous to plant owners,”
said Chris Wilhite, Climate Organizer with Clean Water Action in Rhode
Island.
The
stated goal of RGGI is to cap emissions at current levels and begin
reducing them gradually in coming years. Since 2004, the nine
Northeastern states have been negotiating the details of a model rule
that states could adopt to govern the program. In August the states
released a draft of their proposed plan to implement the program,
calling for emissions to be capped at 10% below 2009 levels in 2020.
Today
the Rhode Island Climate Coalition released a letter from 27
environmental and consumer organizations, detailing specifics of
loopholes in the plan that might yield no reductions in power plant
pollution by 2020.
“It
is critical that there be a tightening of the loopholes to ensure the
program achieves greater reductions with more integrity,” said Matt
Auten, Advocate with the Rhode Island Public Interest Research Group
(RIPIRG). “If the states modify the proposal to incorporate the changes
recommended in our letter then we believe RGGI would be a true success
story, yielding substantial emission reductions at power plants while
minimizing costs to consumers.”
According
to the groups there are three facets of the proposal that together
could result in no emissions reduction from power plants. They are:
Leakage
– Forecasts project that by 2020 40% or more of the pollution-reduction
requirements in the RGGI states would be met simply importing more
coal-fired power from states such as Pennsylvania, meaning that
emission reductions here would lead to more carbon dioxide being
released in bordering states.
Offsets
– Power plant owners would be allowed to substitute cuts in global
warming emissions from other sources than power plants (called
"offsets"), such as planting trees or capturing methane from landfills,
for 50% of the planned reductions in power plant emissions.
Baseline emissions
– The initial emissions level of 150.6 million tons of carbon dioxide,
against which the future 10% reduction would be calculated, is well
above current levels – which are estimated at around 143 to 144 million
tons.
Another
contentious issue is how many “pollution credits” power plant owners
would receive for free, giving them the right to emit global warming
pollution under the cap and trade system. The current plan calls for 80
percent of such credits to be given to power plant operators while the
remaining 20 percent would be auctioned for the public good, with the
proceeds being invested in energy efficiency, consumer rebates and
renewable energy. The groups are calling for at least half the credits
initially, and eventually for all of them, to be allocated for the
benefit of consumers.
“The Governors need to make sure that energy consumers are protected
from the cost of cleaning up power plants,” said Karen Malcolm of Ocean
State Action. “Many consumers are struggling enough to make ends meet
while some energy providers are making huge profits. We believe a
strong model rule can be adopted that achieves greater pollution
reductions and does more to protect consumers.”
The
nine states involved in this process are, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and
Vermont.
