New Jersey will drop out of the Connecticut’s program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Republican Gov. Chris Christie announced Thursday, calling the pact a failure at cutting pollution and a burden to taxpayers, The Associated Press reports.
The 10-state cap-and-trade program called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or RGGI, sets limits on carbon dioxide emissions by fossil fuel-burning power plants and requires them to buy permits to release such gases. The permits can be bought and sold among plants, giving them a financial incentive to operate more cleanly.
After Christie’s announcement, Connecticut and a majority of the other participating Northeastern states — Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — indicated their intention to stay in the pact.
The decision to withdraw from the 10-state cap-and-trade program at the end of the year marks a turnaround for New Jersey, a heavily industrialized state that was an early backer of efforts to curb the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency urged Christie to reconsider.
The immediate effects of New Jersey’s pullout could be small.
And since global climate change is a worldwide problem, any reductions achieved by the Northeastern states were not expected to make a dent in overall greenhouse gas emissions. The program was largely seen as a test run for future national and international emissions trading pacts.
