https://mailchi.mp/americanenergyalliance.org/inconceivable?e=02e2394a9b
Inside Investigator (7/6/26) reports: “The latest round of carbon allowances auctioned off to buyers under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) saw a clearing price that is up over 900 percent since the multi-state program began in 2008, potentially driving up the cost of Connecticut’s energy supply in a way far less visible to ratepayers than Connecticut’s public benefits charge.
Connecticut was one of the first states to join RGGI, which auctions off carbon allowances that fossil-fuel power generators are required to own to sell their power to utility companies. Often referred to as a ‘cap and invest program,’ participating states, including Connecticut, each lower the number of allowances available for auction over time, driving up the prices paid by energy producers and thereby generating more auction revenue that is funneled to preferred energy programs. In 2008, the clearing price for the first auction of carbon credits was $3.07 per allowance; as of the latest auction in June 2026, the clearing price was $35 per allowance, according to RGGI’s auction history.
The increase is even more pronounced when considering that the clearing price was mostly below $2 per allowance between September 2009 and March 2013. Following that, the price increased steadily before making a $10 jump between March and June 2026 when auction proceeds reached $642 million…Virginia, a political battleground state, left RGGI for a few years before rejoining in 2026. While re-entry into RGGI was projected to increase costs for ratepayers, Viriginia lawmakers passed a law to reduce the impact by using part of the RGGI auction proceeds as a credit toward ratepayers’ bills, according to VPM. Dominion Energy spokesman Jeremy Slayton told the news outlet that the cost of carbon allowances ‘are a pass-through cost’ to consumers.”
A tale of two states (sitting on the same shale).
The South Shore Press (7/20/26) reports: “Standing just a few miles from Pennsylvania, New York residents can see what state Senators Tom O’Mara and George Borrello describe as two vastly different economic realities separated only by a state line. Representing districts that border Pennsylvania, the two lawmakers say New York’s ban on hydraulic fracturing has cost the Southern Tier billions of dollars in investment, thousands of jobs, and an opportunity to revitalize struggling rural communities, while neighboring Pennsylvania has experienced an economic transformation fueled by development of the Marcellus Shale…
According to O’Mara, the difference has become measurable. ‘I just saw statistics the other day that the individual GDP is about 50 percent higher per individual in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania as opposed to the Southern Tier of New York,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t that way before.’…The senator said the contrast has been especially painful for New York farmers who watched their Pennsylvania neighbors prosper during the natural gas boom. ‘I’ve heard from farmers that the equipment dealers they used in Pennsylvania couldn’t even service their machinery anymore because they were too busy selling new equipment to Pennsylvania farmers,’ O’Mara said…’All the state seems to want to do is cover up farmland with solar panels.’
Borrello said his district provides a daily reminder of what New York has chosen to forgo. ‘My district borders Pennsylvania for about 100 miles,’ he said. ‘We are watching the prosperity and the economic boom on the other side of the border.’…Borrello argued that New York is sitting atop abundant natural gas reserves while refusing to develop them. ‘We have, underneath our feet, an abundance of natural gas,’ he said. ‘The worst part about it is they’re doing it literally a thousand yards away across the border in Pennsylvania.’ He said the natural gas reservoirs do not stop at the state line…
O’Mara also criticized state climate policies, arguing they have reduced generating capacity while increasing demand. ‘We actually have less power generation in New York State today than we had when the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act was instituted,’ he said. ‘We’re going backwards.’ The law, signed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019, sets New York on a path away from fossil fuels and toward an all-electric economy powered primarily by renewable energy, goals opponents say cannot be achieved without enormous economic costs. Borrello said the consequences are already being felt by every household. ‘Affordability is the number one concern for New Yorkers,’ he said. ‘Every month families open their utility bills and see the impact of these disastrous policies.'”
Blue-state-blackouts.
Red State (7/20/26) opinion: “It’s hard to point and say, ‘I told you so,’ when so many denizens of a major city, right here in the United States, are suffering from a heat wave because of the feather-headed ideas of their elected representatives. And yet, these days, we seem to find ourselves in the position of doing just that, all too often. Here’s where this latest tale of urban woe begins: In 2019, the state of New York passed something called the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
Among other things, this legislation banned the construction of any new coal or natural gas-fired electrical generation plants, also banned the upgrading or repair of existing plants, and mandated more and more solar panels and windmills to pick up that slack. Now, in the middle of a considerable heat wave, the Big Apple is paying the price for this dumb law in the form of rolling blackouts…Hot weather in New York in the summertime isn’t exactly a new thing, after all. It’s always been hot in the summer, and the Big Apple, with all of its concrete and asphalt roofs, generates an enormous urban heat island effect, making it even hotter.
Now, humans, biologically, are rather better adapted for hot weather than cold, but this kind of heat – regularly breaking 100 degrees – can be dangerous, even life-threatening, to the very old, the very young, and the infirm. And these blackouts leave those people without the one amazing modern technology that can prevent disaster: Air conditioning. It’s not just the rolling blackouts that are a problem. Electricity rates in New York have increased since the passage of the New York Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act at three times the rate of increase in the nation as a whole.
Energy prices in New York are 44 percent higher than the national average. That’s not community protection. It’s also not climate leadership. It’s callous indifference to the population of one of the nation’s greatest cities.”
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