Virginia environmental regulators did not have the authority to withdraw the state from a regional carbon trading program without the approval of lawmakers, a judge ruled Monday.
The circuit court in Floyd County, Virginia, said that last year’s vote by the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board to undo legislation enabling the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was “unlawful and without effect.”
“For the reasons set out in this opinion, the Court finds that the attempted repeal of the RGGI Regulation is unlawful, and thereby null and void,” Judge Designate Randall Lowe said in a five-page opinion.
The decision is a blow to Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who initiated the state’s efforts to withdraw from the carbon trading program. RGGI caps carbon emissions from power plants in 11 participating states in New England and the mid-Atlantic.
