A new effort is underway to force the Granite State to abandon its involvement in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a successful effort to combat climate change by promoting energy efficiency. RGGI has helped New Hampshire; a November 2011 report by the Boston-based Analysis Group showed that RGGI provided $17 million of economic benefits to the state. However, those who are ideologically opposed to any effort to reduce carbon emissions find the program intolerable.
Just a year ago, RGGI's enemies launched a crusade to compel New Hampshire to withdraw from the program; their efforts failed thanks to the courage of New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch and the state Senate. Now, those who fawn over fossil fuels are once again fighting progress.
As Nancy Kyle of the Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire recently noted:
While the RGGI program has ping-ponged politically over the past couple of years and is not particularly popular with the current New Hampshire Legislature, it is important to remember that this is a long-term program that is still maturing and advancing. New Hampshire consumers pay into the program through the regional wholesale market, so simply pulling New Hampshire out of the program will only leave us paying for a program and not receiving any of the benefits. In addition, by investing these dollars and the dollars the program leverages here in New Hampshire, we are keeping energy spending local. This is compounded by the fact that less energy purchased means more dollars staying in the local economy.
At its core, RGGI is a market-based carbon pollution control program that uses the market to establish the cost of pollution allowance on major emitters and then returns those dollars to ratepayers in the form of energy efficiency programs. This program stands in strong contrast to other top-down environmental regulations.
New Hampshire's motto, "Live Free or Die," is quite fitting with regard to this controversy. Either New Hampshire and other states will live free of carbon emissions, or the prospects of our children living in a habitable environment will die.
The effort to end New Hampshire's involvement in RGGI is a classic example of the shallowness of short-term thinking. Those who push for the RGGI repeal cannot foresee a day when clean energy will be dominant, a day when we will have broken free of our dependence on coal and oil. All they see is the quick fix, the (supposedly) sure bet.
It's a sure bet that those who are backing the RGGI repeal are not thinking of their children and grandchildren. Let them deal with an eroded environment and a compromised climate! We've got to get ours!
Who thinks like this? Who reasons like this? The intensity of their illogic is stunning.
RGGI proves that the economy and the environment can be nurtured and improved at the same time. It's a way to be green in both senses of the word. It's an important program, and it's important for New Hampshire to remain a part of it.
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