This summer, the Legislature passed and Gov. Baldacci signed a bill, LD 1851, to move forward with the Northeast states’ regional agreement to cut power plant emissions, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). This action will prioritize existing energy solutions and move our state, region and country forward in the fight against global warming.

Taking action to enact RGGI in Maine and across our region will make a significant reduction in global warming pollution—nearly 20 percent from power plants by 2019. According to Environment Maine Research & Policy Center’s recent report, “The Carbon Boom,” the ten RGGI states released 625 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in the year 2004, an eight percent increase from 1990—more than Canada or the United Kingdom.

Read our report “Tomorrow’s Energy Today,” which talks about energy solutions to global warming pollution.

Executive Summary
New England is heading for an energy crisis. Energy prices are high and increasingly volatile. The long-term outlook for oil and natural gas supplies is questionable. And our use of energy contributes to a variety of environmental and public safety problems, not the least of which is global warming. A clean energy strategy that maximizes our region’s near-term potential to use energy more efficiently and generate more of our power from clean, home-grown renewable resources can address New England’s energy problems and dramatically reduce emissions of global warming pollutants – providing a “win-win” path forward for the region.