Urges residents in Delaware to attend public hearing on September 25th in
Dover, DE and calls on neighbor states to join RGGI.
WILMINGTON, DE — The Delaware Department of Natural Resources &
Environmental Control plans to hold a public hearing September 25 (at 6 pm
in Kent County Administrative Complex, Room 220, 555 S. Bay Road, Dover.)
on the implementation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s (RGGI)
new model rule (released 2/7/13) into state regulation 1147. Each state in
the RRGI must implement the rule in their state regulations in order for
it to take effect. The Green Party of Delaware supports the implementation
of the new rule and encourages citizens to attend the hearing and speak in
support of it.
The new model rule, a result of a five-year review of progress in the
nine-state initiative, proposes to cut the carbon emissions cap by 45%,
from 165 million to 91 million tons a year starting in 2014. The cap would
then continue to decline 2% a year from 2015 to 2020.
This “cap and trade” system holds regular auctions of CO2 allowances among
the member states in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which cause
climate change. Since worldwide carbon dioxide levels are already over 400
ppm (and 350 was determined by climate scientists to be the maximum safe
level), it is imperative to keep lowering the cap over time. In addition
to large scale climate benefits and local pollution reduction benefits,
participating states have also experienced economic benefits to this
program, which creates green jobs.
There is expected to be a strong opposition contingency at the public
hearing on the 25th by Tea Party members and climate change deniers. The
Green Party of Delaware calls on all Delawareans who are concerned about
climate change to attend this hearing and offer a rebuttal to their
comments.
In addition, The Green Party of Delaware urges its neighbor states to join
RGGI and calls upon all 2013 and 2014 gubernatorial candidates in New
Jersey and Pennsylvania to pledge to join as Steven Welzer (GP) and
Barbara Buono (D), candidates for New Jersey governor, have recently
pledged. New jersey left RGGI in 2009 when Governor Chris Christie took
office and Pennsylvania never even joined. Without these two key states
the impact of RGGI is much less.
For more information:
http://gpde.us
http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/Air/Pages/RegionalGreenhouseGasInitiative.aspx
http://www.rggi.org/
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