Tackling global warming emissions

Bringing RGGI to New Hampshire

Environment New Hampshire worked in the Statehouse throughout the spring to gain enough support from legislators to pass a bill that would allow New Hampshire to participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional program to cap global warming pollution from power plants.

RGGI would cut 10 percent of power plant pollution across much of the Northeast by 2019.  In order for New Hampshire to join RGGI before the start of the program in 2009, state legislators need to approve the initiative and pass the bill this spring.

“RGGI is one of the best tools we can use to tackle global warming now in New Hampshire and across the Northeast,” said Erika Staaf, advocate for Environment New Hampshire. “Not only will RGGI drive innovation and a new clean energy economy, it will also serve as a historic model for the rest of the nation to follow.”

How RGGI will work

RGGI will utilize an emissions trading system, which would set a cap on power plant emissions allowed in New Hampshire. Permits would be issued equal to the tons of carbon dioxide allowed under the cap. Power-generating companies that pollute beyond their permits would need to buy permits from companies that cut emissions, creating an economic incentive for companies to decrease the pollution they create. 

Unfortunately, Public Service Company of  New Hampshire, the state’s largest electric utility and owner of several of the state’s coal-fired power plants, has been working to fill the bill with loopholes so large that the program would result in few real pollution reductions in the state.

To combat these loopholes, Environment New Hampshire is working with a large coalition of environmental organizations to advocate a set of standards for the RGGI bill. One standard is to require utilities to pay for initial permits based on the amount of global warming pollution that they emit.

A second standard is for the money generated by the program to go to fund energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy programs.

RGGI would reduce emissions from power plants.