What Younkin is proposing is illegal. The 2020 legislation joining RGGI 2020 law mandates that Virginia participate in RGGI. The administration can’t just brush aside the laws it disagrees with or there is no law.

The data from the Virginia government report proves that RGGI reduces emissions, concluding that RGGI “has a long track record of emission reductions since the beginning of the program.” If we don't follow the science, we are no better than QAnon clowns.

Virginia’s emissions have not declined over the last decade,. So if we pull out of RGGI, Virginia will not be able to achieve carbon free power by 2050 as required by the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

RGGI participation improves public health by decreasing air pollution. That means there will be fewer asthma attacks, premature births, and missed school and work days. In just 10 years, participating states realized $5.7 billion in public health benefits thanks to RGGI.

RGGI is helping Virginians cope with climate change right now, by generating funds that are providing safe, affordable and energy-efficient homes to low-income families in ways that were never possible before RGGI. It also provides dedicated funding to localities to plan for and prevent recurrent flooding, caused primarily by sea level rise and severe rainfall events. It is predicted that, without RGGI funding, Virginia will be overwhelmed with billions for flooding damages. What if the military decides that sea level rise, coupled with land sinking makes it unsafe to maintain the naval bases? What about those jobs moving to the Carolinas, or north to Maryland? Do we want to risk that?

Instead of repealing RGGI, focus on reforming utility rates. Dominion’s bills are high because the monopoly utility has been allowed to rewrite the utility code in its favor, while overinvesting in risky fossil fuel power plants and environmentally disastrous pipelines. If the administration really cares about customer costs, it will abandon this unlawful repeal attempt and instead support monopoly utility rate reforms.

Do the right thing and fix what's broken, before it's too late, instead of attempting to repeal the correct solution