Va. environmentalists sue to block Youngkin from exiting carbon market

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The Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit Monday to block Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) from withdrawing Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

RICHMOND — Environmental groups filed suit Monday in Fairfax County Circuit Court to prevent Gov. Glenn Youngkin from taking Virginia out of a multistate carbon-credit market aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.Lawyers for the Southern Environmental Law Center prepared the suit on behalf of several Virginia environmental groups seeking to keep the state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI.

“It is critical that we continue our participation in RGGI, a proven climate solution,” SELC senior attorney Nate Benforado said in a news release. “Virginians know that we need this program and that we have no time to waste. We will be doing everything we can — as quickly as we can — to enforce the law and maintain this successful program.”in 2021 after Democrats, who then controlled the General Assembly, passed a sweeping energy bill that called for the state to phase out carbon-based fuels.

Dominion Energy, the state’s biggest utility, has said that it added $2.36 to the average customer’s monthly utility bill to cover the cost of complying with RGGI requirements. The State Corporation Commission suspended that surcharge this year in anticipation of Virginia withdrawing from RGGI, but Dominion succeeded in getting a slightly higher surcharge restored this summer.

At the same time, the RGGI auctions have returned some $589 million to Virginia, which under the law passed by the General Assembly is used to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels caused by climate change and to increase theShortly after taking office in 2022, Youngkin attempted to withdraw from RGGI by executive order, but lawmakers in the General Assembly argued that he could not override an action of the legislature.

 

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