BACKFIRED: Spanberger’s Preferred Climate Policy Caused 2.1B More Pounds of CO2 Emissions

Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger supports a climate project that actually increased the carbon emissions Virginia caused—and cost residents more money—according to the commonwealth’s Department of Energy.

That project, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, “was supposed to decrease emissions, but it actually increased emissions,” Glenn Davis, director of the Virginia Department of Energy, told The Daily Signal in an interview Tuesday. He called it a “bait and switch.”

The department told The Daily Signal that Virginia’s consumption of energy from the company Dominion Energy caused approximately 2.145 billion more pounds of CO2 emissions in 2022 and 2023, the years that Virginia had been part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

While Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment, a climate activist group that sent her more than $1 million accused Davis of lying.

Why the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Backfired

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an interstate agreement, charges power plants for their emissions and uses the money to prop up renewable energy or other projects. Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, attempted to exit the initiative, calling it a “hidden tax” on electricity. Virginia’s withdrawal remains in limbo after a judge blocked it. The administration got a court to grant a stay, allowing Virginia to remain out of it for now. Spanberger has pledged to rejoin it.

Davis previously told The Daily Signal that the initiative cost Virginians $828 million, “every dollar of which was passed on to Virginians in their energy bills.”

He said other states use the initiative’s funds to offset ratepayers’ energy bills, since the program increases costs for consumers, but Virginia Democrats used the money to fund other projects, such as flood preparation projects.

So, how did the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program aimed at decreasing carbon emissions, actually increase them?

“RGGI penalized utilities for emissions generated by in-state generation facilities, but it did not address any out-of-state generation facilities, so Dominion [Energy] decreased their power generation on their natural gas facilities in Virginia and supplemented it with their coal-burning facilities in West Virginia,” Davis explained.

According to the Energy Information Administration, coal generation produced 2,257 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity in 2019, while natural gas generation produced less than half that amount, at 976 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour.

Just How Much More Carbon Emissions?

Virginia joined the initiative in January 2021 and left in January 2024. Energy demand decreased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic, so in order to determine the impacts of the initiative, the Department of Energy focused on data from two time periods: the percentage of energy Dominion Energy purchased for Virginia customers from other states in 2018 and 2019, and the out-of-state imports and energy demand for the years 2022 and 2023. (Complete data for 2024 remains unavailable.)

In 2018 and 2019, Dominion imported an average of 15.49% of Virginia customers’ energy from other states in the PJM Interconnection electric grid (a multi-state electric grid that Virginia is part of that includes portions of 13 states). The energy bought from the PJM grid emits proportionately more CO2 than energy produced in Virginia. That percentage of imported energy increased to 22.5% in 2022 and 2023.

The Department of Energy estimated that while the energy Virginians purchased from Dominion required the emission of 118.86 billion pounds of CO2 in 2022 and 2023 under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, it would only have required the emission of 116.71 billion pounds had it remained outside of the initiative. While this increase only amounts to about 1.84% of the emissions for those two years, it still illustrates a climate policy leading to more emissions, not less.

That means this “climate” policy led to 2,145,510,874 more pounds of CO2 getting emitted into the atmosphere.

While that may represent a small number in the grand scheme of things, it demonstrates the way these policies can backfire.

The department also noted a PJM study predicting what would happen if Pennsylvania joined the initiative. While carbon emissions from Pennsylvania would decrease (because Pennsylvania would produce less energy), emissions in the PJM system would remain largely unchanged, while prices would increase for consumers within and outside the Keystone State.

An Environmental Group’s Response

The Virginia League of Conservation Voters—which gave Spanberger for Governor $1.38 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project—called foul.

“When Glenn Davis blames RGGI for increasing energy costs, he’s lying,” Lee Francis, a spokesman for the league, told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. “There are many reasons why natural gas is expensive, and will continue to be well into the future, and none of them are because of programs like RGGI.”

“The cheapest way to keep the lights on right now is with clean energy, and RGGI incentivizes utilities like Dominion when they bring clean, renewable energy sources online, lowering energy costs while cutting pollution,” Francis added. “Davis must be trying to distract Virginians from the fact that he’s been working with Gov. Youngkin to make sure we all pay more for dirtier energy so that Republican mega-donors and the fossil fuel industry continue to profit at our expense.”

Dominion Energy declined to address the Department of Energy’s claim that the initiative led to an increase in emissions. Appalachian Power Company, Virginia’s other major supplier of electricity, did not directly address the claim either.

“RGGI is currently suspended in Virginia due to ongoing legal challenges,” Appalachian Power communications consultant Karen Wissing told The Daily Signal. “As such, it is not affecting Appalachian Power’s operations at this time. If RGGI were in effect, we would expect to see significant operational adjustments aimed at reducing emissions.”

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