Chris Christie Withdraws NJ from Regional Cap & Trade Agreement
In what may seem like a presidential move forward, Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) has removed the Garden State from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which inludes the 6 New England States, NY, NJ, DE, and MD (with PA, Québec, New Brunswick, and Ontario being prudent observers of the pact).
RGGI is a cooperative effort by Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 10 percent by 2018. To do so, power plant operators such as PSE&G must purchase allowances from their host states to cover each ton of carbon dioxide emissions they are likely to produce. The companies can then buy, sell or trade their permits. Companies that reduce their emissions and don’t need all their allowances might sell them to a company whose emissions exceed their allowances.
Here’s what Christie had to say:
“It’s a failure,” Christie said. “RGGI has not changed behavior and it does not reduce emissions.”
Well it only started in 2009, but that’s not entirely the point. While the overall goal is to reduce emissions from large power-plants, cap-and-trade acts as an added tax to pollution and CO2 production that is then used for sustainable energy efforts. It is then the responsibility of the company to reduce emissions. If he doesn’t want the additional revenue, fine, but last I checked Jersey had a $10.5 billion deficit in 2011. This seems like a lot of pandering in the midst of considering a presidential bid despite an overall disapproval rating where 31% approve, 67% disapprove of his job performance in NJ.