Governor Youngkin does not have the authority to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative outside of the General Assembly.  There are many important reasons this should not be done, one of them being that removal from RGGI cuts off the only funding source for the Community Flood Preparedness Fund which has received $200 million from RGGI to communities throughout the state for flood resilience initiatives.  The recent horrendous damage in Florida from hurricane Ian should be an example to Virginians that funds like this are very necessary especially for our cities that are low lying and near water bodies such as Newport News and Virginia Beach.  Another major reason is that withdrawing from RGGI jeopardizes low to moderate income families by removing a funding source that supports energy efficiency to the most vulnerable families.  In these times in which we are already seeing the  drastic impacts of climate change Virginia must continue to move forward doing all that we can to mitigate the impacts of climate change.  Withdrawing from RGGI would be a big step backward and a huge mistake that we cannot afford to make.