Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Environmental Quality
 
Board
Air Pollution Control Board
 
chapter
Regulation for Emissions Trading [9 VAC 5 ‑ 140]
Action Repeal CO 2 Budget Trading Program as required by Executive Order 9 (Revision A22)
Stage Final
Comment Period Ended on 8/30/2023
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8/29/23  1:18 pm
Commenter: Jamie Bacon

Virginia should stay in RGGI
 

I believe Virginia has an ethical and environmental responsibility to remain a member of RGGI. With climate disasters everywhere we turn, now is not the time to bow out of a program that is successfully reducing CO2 emissions in the state. Money obtained from the power companies has also been used to help underprivileged Virginians. So RGGI is a win-win for both Virginia's environment and its people.  That should be celebrated, not ended.

I recently moved to Virginia from Bermuda where I spent 20 years studying how hydrocarbon pollution negatively affected Bermuda's wildlife and potentially threatened its human population. It was both alarming and heartbreaking. Now I look at the air quality reports from the weather websites and see that we're lucky if we get a "fair" air quality reading. I would want Virginia's government to be at the forefront of improving air quality, not responsible for abandoning a program that is having a positive effect.

CommentID: 219820