In a press conference moments ago in Trenton, Gov. Christie announced his support for repealing the state’s cap-and-trade law and withdrawing from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a 10-state regional compact in the Northeast that implements a cap-and-trade energy tax scheme from Maine to Maryland.
“It’s a failure,” Christie said today. “RGGI has not changed behavior and it does not reduce emissions.”
He is absolutely right, and the implications are huge – especially considering that the architect of RGGI was Lisa Jackson, who once was New Jersey’s director of the Department of Environmental Protection under Gov. Jon Corzine, and is currently Obama’s administrator at the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Jackson is now conspiring with Obama to disregard Congress, the American people, and the last national election to implement cap-and-trade like policies through a regulatory back door.
With Christie’s fabulous leadership, New Jersey will be out of RGGI by the end of the year, punching a huge hole in the middle of the regional scheme, lending momentum to burgeoning repel efforts in New Hampshire, Maine, and New York, and leading, perhaps, the final and total end of cap-and-trade as a politically viable concept anywhere in the United States.
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“..lending momentum to burgeoning repel efforts in New Hampshire, Maine, and New York, and leading, perhaps, the final and total end of cap-and-trade as a politically viable concept anywhere in the United States…”
Naaa…I live in California and see no hope to see this go away any time soon in the foreseeable future.
A thin veneer of renewables and other greenwash as a sap to the few covering a policy of common sense for the many!
Thank You Gov. Christie!
‘And another one gone, and another one gone, and another one bites the dust – Yeah!’
If there are any WUWT fans in New Jersey, I urge you to communicate directly with Gov. Christie’s staff and help educate him better about natural climate change and the fallicies associated with atmospheric CO2. It is always received with greater attention, when information is provided by residents of a politician’s home district or home state!
Yep. Not that I credit Christie with much except dumping Jon Corzine out of Drumthwacket on his Goldman Sachs bankster butt, but North Jersey Republicans are capable of being right every now and then on the “stopped clock” principle.
Even though he wants to get rid of cap and trade in his state, he is pro AGW. This doesn’t look good for America if he is the golden child of conservitism.
Sounds like he’s still drinking the AGW koolaid, just not buying Cap’n Trade. It’s a start, but not much.
Another nail in the coffin of the green dreamers over at The Star.
http://www.thestar.com/article/198065
Christie has more than enough on his plate just fighting the public unions. No need to take a stand on AGW right now other than to get out of RGGI. A bit disappointed about the offshore wind BS but that’s off in the future.
Just wish we had Christie here in California. We need him.
Sweet. When will this guy be in the white house?
Hurrah!
Is it too early to hope that we are seeing the beginning of the end of global warming foolishness?
A brilliant outbreak of common sense over mass hysteria.
He’d make a great POTUS . . . just saying.
Governor Christie seems not to understand the difference between correlation and causation. He must have been an interesting prosecutor. But, most people don’t either. It’s probably good that he bailed because RGGI was a failure, because people
WILL understand that.
OK Jerry Brown, what say you? How about nuking AB32?
This is good. Gov Christi may have a bit more to go but his learning curve is positive.
Nah, I’m disgusted. The whole “wind”, “solar” BS. The “there will be no more coal power plants in NJ, ever” BS. I hope he’s just playing to the crowd, but the “experts” he’s been discussing this with are, I’m willing to bet, ALL on the pro-AGW side/agenda. I had great hopes for the man, but this puts a bitter taste in my mouth. He made his reasons for pulling out of RGGI entirely on economic terms, as a conservative should, but then followed it by stating that NJ had already met its goals for GHG emissions under RGGI and that the market was a better cudgel to use than RGGI anyway.
Thanks, but no thanks. Come on Christie, throw the BS flag!
It’s good that NJ will bail out of the ill-advised and wrong-headed RGGI, but Gov. Christie’s announcement is a huge disappointment for those of us who thought he was smart enough—after “months” of study and review, no less—to understand that the claim that “90% of scientists” think that anthropogenic CO2 causes global warming is fatuous propaganda, and that it doesn’t, not in any measurable amount.
Clearly he is not smart enough.
It was also dismaying to hear that he wants to ban any new coal-fired power plants, because they produce the most CO2, and that he’s going to promote off-shore wind farms, which will just raise electric rates astronomically.
I like his tough stance on public-sector unions, but please, Gov. Christie, stay out of the Presidential race!
/Mr Lynn
Just wish we had Christie here in California. We need him.
We have the Anti-Christie. We have the guy who was probably Jon Corzine’s role model.
Unfortunately, he isn’t aware that CAGW is a scam. But he could be educated. Not every legislator can be expected to understand this issue, but the GOP is learning.
Agree w/Bob Johnston. Christie is smart enough to know the “carbon” issue is bogus. But plenty of his constituents aren’t that smart. He’s a politician, and that means he’s always calculating the vote. Always.
Christie won’t run against Obama because it would be uphill, with all the major media rooting as one for The One. And Obama has Air Force 1 & 2 always at his disposal. He doesn’t have a boss, and he can campaign and fund raise 24/7/365. He can manufacture news whenever he wants. IMHO, Christie would have a good chance of winning anyway – but Christie has a much better chance in 2016.
So Christie is playing the right odds. The fly in the ointment for any politician, though, is the fact that six months is a lifetime in politics, and in five years anything could happen to make Christie irrelevant. Or anyone else, for that matter.
I would love for someone of Gov. Christie’s stature to forcefully state that the “carbon” issue is simply a racket, and explain why. But he’s a pol, and telling the truth to that extent wouldn’t be good for his numbers.
I would give Christie a little slack here. It’s not a complete abandonment of AGW but it is a big practical step away from it. I’ll speculate that he has enough self-knowledge to recognize that he doesn’t know enough science, and he sure doesn’t have time to learn it (particularly when mobbed by special pleaders of all kinds). So his private view may be skeptical of AGW theory. But what matters to a politician is not theory but practice. What will get him elected, what will build his political capital so he can get his agenda through? Things that please voters and build (or don’t burden) the economy. He wants jobs, he wants less (or well-focused, value-delivering) government. I bet he calculated that RGGI was a loser all around: it cost money to be in that club, it bought him no credit except with a tiny base of lefties whose votes he’ll never get, and increasingly it was hurting industry and would be an albatross in his next campaign. So he turned it around. Good-bye to lost money and focus and votes. Hello to a media-catching bold act that allows him to talk about his positive agenda. As for AGW? He will wait and see. …That’s my interpretation. And we’ll have to wait and see!
While RGGI seems to be getting all the attention in NH and NJ, renewables (RPS) is much more costly forcing us to buy power at 3-10 times the cost of gas generation.
Notes from the press conference [personal comments are in square brackets]:
Withdrawing because:
1) RGGI not meeting the expected allowance cost of $20-$30 a ton originally envisioned. Current auction rates are less than $2.00 at the auction floor
price [$1.89 this year].
2) NJ CO2 emissions are below the 2020 target. [I suggested the NH legislature should declare success, and say we don’t need RGGI any longer. Doesn’t seem to have registered.
3) Other laws passed post RGGI specifically target development of renewable energy. [I hadn’t thought of that angle, I rather like it.]
4) RGGI is essentially a tax on electricity producers and passed on to the consumers.
RGGI has provided no measurable environmental improvement. Since [neighboring] Pennsylvania is not it RGGI, it’s conceivable that their dirty coal plants could put NJ’s clean natural gas and other plants out of business.
NJ will withdraw by year’s end. [Like NH’s bill, Christie noted it coincides with the end of the first three year “control period.” Allowances are good for the control period they’re assigned to and become worthless if not spent.]
There will be no new coal plants in NJ. Christie referred to them as dirty.
NJ will become #1 in offshore wind energy. [Umm, Okay. We’ll be watching.]
[The recording ending before the end of the press conference. Grr. I may look for more.]
People, did you listen to what Gov Christie said? He sounded just like Obama. No new coal plants in NJ and big push for offshore wind farms. He just cut ties with RGGI, he is not anti-AGW.
If this is a win for us skeptics, it is but mere chance!
Watch the video, listen to his words, and pray he wises up soon!
Bill
May I suggest a fire sale for all their solar panels that made them almost as popular in New J as in California.
oMan makes some good points. I’d like Christie to get in the media’s face, but in a Democrat state like NJ he’s walking a fine line. If he was governor of Texas he could be more candid.
Bill Yarber, he didn’t really sound just like Obama.
And Sonicfrog coins: “the anti-Christie”. Kudos! You get a gold star.☺
[Finally, I’d like to point out that one of Anthony’s blogroll stars is really on a roll this week: click]