NJ legislature moves to re-enter RGGI

The New Jersey legislature approved on October 24 a measure that could lead to a reversal of Governor Chris Christie’s decision in 2011 to take the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap and trade program covering nine states in the Northeast. The legislature’s action follows a March 2014 decision in which the New Jersey Superior Court ruled that Governor Christie’s exit from RGGI was an illegal action because it did not provide an opportunity for public input. The case was brought against the governor’s office by Environment New Jersey and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Governor Christie vowed in July to formally enact rules that formally pull New Jersey out of RGGI, but the legislature’s action on October 24 aims to block the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from issuing those rules. “Governor Christie clearly thumbed his nose at the legislature by pulling out of the rules governing RGGI,” Environment New Jersey said in a release. “The state senate took a historic first step to assert [that] legislative intent can’t be conveniently ignored.”