David Stevenson, writing at NH Journal, shares a recent report by The Analysis Group which
“…just released their review of the effects of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), and they give it an A+.”
If you’re not the guessing sort, there are a lot of issues with the report, which is not surprising because (as Stevenson points out) the Analysis Group is a paid consultant of RGGI.
We’ve had plenty to say around here about RGGI, which you can peruse here, but that’s no reason not to revisit the fraud.
When you check the math, you’ll find that RGGI has no impact on emissions, has had minimal impact on improving energy efficiency, and done very little to increase wind and solar power generation.
What RGGI has done is put upward pressure on electricity rates which, in turn, has driven energy-intensive businesses out of the RGGI region—along with the good-paying jobs those businesses supply. In New Hampshire, for example, the loss of these high-wage jobs has reduced real median household income by almost $2,000 a year, while increasing electric rates.
The goal is fewer people doing fewer things, just ask the nice folks at Treehugger.
In their report, the Analysis Group (a paid consultant for RGGI, Inc.) assumes $800 million of that money is invested in local economies where it is leveraged by indirect and induced affects into $1.4 billion of economic impact. But they’re using gross figures, not net. They don’t account for the economic impact of that $800 million if it had been saved or spent by the electric customers themselves. If the $800 million had been dropped into the economy from the sky, their analysis would be accurate. But it didn’t. The money came directly from local businesses and consumers in RGGI states who would have spent, saved or invested it themselves, thereby adding to economic growth.
That net number, alleged RGGI growth minus the loss of economic activity from ratepayers and customers, is nowhere to be found.
Plenty more at the link but to sum it up,
The RGGI program is being extended from 2020 to 2030 with another 30 percent emission reduction goal, and up to six times higher allowance cost planned. New Hampshire already met the 2030 emissions goal in 2016. The RGGI program hurts New Hampshire’s economy with lost business, lost high paying jobs, lost income, and lost tax revenue. After a decade there is no apparent environmental benefit from RGGI, and there has been a minimal impact on energy efficiency, and wind power.
Laundering money through an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy has no upside unless the Commission employs you or empowers you.
That’s RGGI. And we’re still stuck with it.
