Judge deals blow to legal effort to halt Virginia's RGGI withdrawal - The Chesapeake Bay Journal
Judge deals blow to legal effort to halt Virginia’s RGGI withdrawal | Climate Change | bayjournal.com
Wearing shirts proclaiming “RGGI is Law,” supporters of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative listen to presentations at Virginia’s Air Pollution Control Board hearing on June 7, 2023, in Richmond. The board voted 4–3 to end the state’s participation in the program.
A legal effort to thwart Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin’s bid to unilaterally withdraw the state from a regional carbon-reduction pact has hit a technical snag.
A lawsuit filed in August by a coalition of environmental organizations, as well as an energy conservation trade group, sought to undo the Youngkin administration’s pending pullout from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). They argued that the administration exceeded its authority because the legislature had previously codified the state’s participation into law.
A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge ruled Nov. 3 that the legal action can’t go any further – for now.
Judge David Oblon wrote that Youngkin’s action had caused no direct harm to three of the four suing parties – Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, Appalachian Voices and Virginia Interfaith Power and Light. They, therefore, lacked standing in the case, he ruled.
Oblon rejected claims that groups’ reputations had suffered because they had helped other organizations access RGGI funds. “An organization’s unilateral free choice to deploy resources in response to a government action is an insufficient basis to support standing,” Oblon wrote. He added: “They only have ‘interest in a problem.’”
The nine-page order also disputed arguments that the groups would be impacted by increased air pollution. RGGI’s carbon cap-and-trade market allows power plants in a dozen Northeast states to purchase credits for steps that reduce air pollution in one location in lieu of enacting measures to reduce the plant’s emissions in a different location. In that regard, the program “may cause increased air pollution in pockets within the region,” the judge said.
Finally, Oblon rebuffed the groups’ argument that they suffered from the loss of potential RGGI funding. There are “innumerable ways to address climate change” that don’t involve RGGI, so their future climate advocacy isn’t necessarily dependent on the program’s survival, he wrote.
But Oblon ruled that the remaining petitioner, the Association of Energy Conservation Professionals (AECP), could theoretically have a case because the governor’s action poses a potential “direct financial loss” to its members. So, he said the trade group may seek a separate ruling on that question of standing – just not in his court.
The lawsuit should have been filed in Floyd County because that is where AECP is headquartered, Oblon wrote. The judge granted a motion to move the case to that county’s circuit court.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”