Want 3,800 Jobs and Nearly $500MM in Economic Activity? Meet RGGI.
This is what’s happened in Massachusetts over the last three years under RGGI (RGGI is acronym for the Regional Greenhouse GAs Initiative and is the first mandatory carbon emissions trading scheme in the U.S. – 10 states are participating across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic).
Now why has Massachusetts shown the best metrics? It’s focused on an aggressive energy efficiency agenda. Oh, and RGGI only accounts for a fraction of the billions the state is investing in energy efficiency. This is not to say that RGGI is without its problems (emissions caps need to get continuously and predictably more agressive, among other issues), but it is an early and rather positive data out of cap and trade worth noting. Full article here.
Ross Chanin 