Real gimmick is Christie's decision to exit RGGI
Shame Gov. Chris Christie is pulling New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, calling it "gimmicky" and "ineffective." Is RGGI ineffective?
Well, it hasn't reversed climate change, if that's what he means. But it has made a small step in the direction of putting a market price on carbon emissions and financing alternative energy sources. It's Christie's decision that's gimmicky. Tim Wheeler blogs about Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's criticism of Chrisie here. And this is from a 2009 Hancock column explaining what RGGI is and why it's important:
The idea, hatched after governors became impatient with federal inertia on climate change, is to put a price on emissions that are expensive for the planet but had been free for energy customers.Costlier carbon energy will push people to find clean alternatives. Auctioning the permits produces revenue to invest in clean energy and conservation. So far, Maryland has gotten $85 million for adding home insulation, subsidizing residential solar generators and cutting household electric bills.
Read the whole column here.
Comments
Why are you interested in 'putting a market price on carbon emissions'?
If rates were to increase by 4-hundredths of 1 percent, that would be considered trivial, but we are expected to believe that CO2 at that .04% concentration will result in devestation--even tho there has never been any study to show that such a low concentration can even work as a greenhouse gas. Capping CO2 emissions is almost surely a scam to further bleed the people to pay those who will set the cost of such emissions.
Posted by: mesns | May 27, 2011 7:19 PM