Virginia’s incoming Republican governor is vowing to take his state out of a regional carbon emissions-trading exchange to which 10 coastal and New England states currently belong—a move that, if successful, would be a major setback for the left-wing environmentalist movement. During a Dec. 8 address to the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin described the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) as a “carbon tax that is fully passed on to ratepayers,” saying he would issue an executive order next month to take the state out of the interstate compact when he is inaugurated next month, The Hill newspaper reported Dec. 9. Virginia became part of the RGGI by way of an amendment offered by outgoing Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, to a bill that Virginia’s General Assembly approved last year. U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, told reporters Youngkin cannot pull the state from the …
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