Tag: RGGI
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Spanberger, Assembly Pass on Meddling With Dominion Sale
by Steve Haner The most important energy outcome of recent legislative wrestling over Virginia’s energy-focused state budget is what it didn’t include. Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) and the legislators did not meddle with the plan for Florida’s NextEra Energy to acquire Dominion Energy. The application for that transaction (it is not a merger, but…
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Thanks to Heat Wave, RGGI Will Bite Fast and Hard
by Steve Haner There is some irony in how Virginia will reenter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme on Wednesday just as a long and deep heatwave begins. It is safe to predict that every RGGI-covered coal and natural gas generation plant in the state will be running full tilt until next…
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Coop Customers (But Not NOVEC) May Now Get RGGI Rebates
by Steve Haner Governor Abigail Spanberger’s proposed amendment to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative rebate system will give most but not all residential customers of Virginia’s rural electric cooperatives a shot at some cash back. The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative is still in the RGGI wilderness. The feeding frenzy over the RGGI carbon tax dollars,…
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Virginia’s Return to RGGI: Another Ratepayer Rip-Off in the Making
Governor Spanberger just made every Virginian’s household more expensive. by Jeff Reynolds Virginia has jumped back into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), and residential ratepayers will feel the pain—again. The last time the state was in the program, under the last Democratic governor, it cost Virginians more than $600 million over three years. Every…
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RGGI Rebates for Some Ordered in New Budget Language
The pending conference report on adopting a new Virginia state budget includes a process to rebate the cost of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s carbon tax, but only to smaller customers and only if their utility is charging them for it directly. Larger energy users, especially the largest industrial, commercial and data customers, will still…
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Rebating Spanberger’s RGGI Tax Won’t Erase RGGI’s Cost Impact
by Steve Haner Virginia’s return to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will produce such an explosion of new tax revenue and will cause such major increases in consumer electricity costs, a political feeding frenzy is beginning to erupt over the money. A legislative study panel heavily controlled by Democrats who voted for Virginia’s return to RGGI…
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RGGI Will Cost Typical Dominion Customer $13 More Per Month
By Steve Haner, Dominion Energy Virginia is proposing to delay until March 2027 to bill its customers for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon allowances it must buy starting July 1. When the cost hits, however, it could be $13 a month or $156 per year for a typical residential customer. The final decision…
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With Tax Now $35 Per Ton, Are RGGI Rebates on the Way?
by Steve Haner The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) held its second 2026 carbon allowance auction last week and the bidding cleared at $35 per ton, the group announced Friday. That price was a 40 percent increase over the $25 per ton set for the carbon tax just three months earlier and was 78 percent higher…
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With Virginia Back In, RGGI Futures Price Tops $41 Per Ton
by Steve Haner Virginia’s impending return to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) has driven up the price for carbon credits in the multistate cap-and-trade system’s secondary market. The futures price exceeded $41 per ton this morning, far above the roughly $25 per ton that utilities had to pay in the March 2026 auction. It reflects…
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Spanberger Pushing for July Return to RGGI and Its Carbon Tax
by Steve Haner The Abigail Spanberger Administration has told an energy industry publication that it plans to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative by July, in time to participate in the September and December 2026 carbon dioxide allowance auctions. Because of the accelerated timetable, the Department of Environmental Quality will not publish a draft regulation…
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Assembly Found Nine Ways To Make Electricity More Expensive
by Steve Haner The 2026 General Assembly has passed at least nine separate new laws that will increase the cost of your electricity. Not one of the bills creates a single megawatt of additional energy for our use. Most of the bills create new ways for the utilities to take money from all their ratepayers and…
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March RGGI Carbon Tax Jumped 26% in One Year
by Steve Haner The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) held its first carbon allowance auction of 2026 Wednesday and the price came in at just under $25 per ton of emissions, 26% higher than a year ago. There should be no doubt now about predictions that imposing this carbon tax on Virginia electricity plants will…
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Keep RGGI Tax Off Customers? Good Luck With That
by Steve Haner Virginia Democrats are so eager to reinstate a carbon tax on Virginia’s electricity producers that there are now three pathways active to accomplish the goal: a bill, a budget amendment and a motion filed with the Virginia Court of Appeals. There is also discussion in the most recent Inside Climate News report…
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RGGI Tax Rose Again. How, When Does it Return to VA?
by Steve Haner, The regional carbon tax on electricity generation favored by Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger and legislative Democrats rose to a record amount in the December auction, $26.73 per ton of carbon emissions. That is a 20% increase from three months ago and is 4% higher than the previous top price, set last year. The…
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Electricity Carbon Tax Advocated by Spanberger Rises Again
By Steve Haner Based on the most recent carbon tax imposed on the member states of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), Virginians will pay about $500 million more per year for electricity if Virginia again becomes one of those member states. Your vote in November may determine that. Democratic nominee for governor Abigail Spanberger…