Multi-state effort to further reduce greenhouse gases from electric power
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This fulfills the Governor's January State of the State challenge to the RGGI states to further strengthen the RGGI program, which yields environmental, health, and economic benefits. With this program update, the regional cap in 2030 will be 65 percent below the 2009 starting level.
New York, along with nine other Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States in the RGGI, which first formed in 2005, are part of the nation's first program to use an innovative market-based mechanism to cap and cost-effectively reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that cause climate change.
A bipartisan group that includes New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
RGGI has helped Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states achieve significant reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the electric power sector.
RGGI contributed to a nearly 50 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from affected power plants in New York, and a 90 percent reduction in coal-fired power generation in the state.
To date, New York has generated more than $1 billion in RGGI proceeds, which help fund energy efficiency, clean energy and emission reduction programs.
In 2013, Governor Cuomo led the RGGI states in reducing the emission cap 50 percent by 2020.
RGGI continues to exceed expectations and has provided more than $2 billion in regional economic benefits and $5.7 billion in public health benefits while reducing emissions in excess of the declining cap's requirements. ■