Dive Brief:

• The chair of the Northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) said last week that more gas infrastructure will be needed to support the program, comply with federal carbon standards, and allow other states to join the cap and trade scheme.
• RGGI chairwoman Katie Dykes told Argus that the program's contracting and procurement have not kept up with the region's natural gas needs, thereby putting reliability at risk.
• Other changes will be necessary for RGGI to align with federal emissions standards, according to Dykes, including extending the program's cap past its current 2020 date.

Dive Insight:

The Northeast's rapid move to rely on natural gas has endangered its ability to use a regional cap and trade program to comply with federal initiatives, while also growing to include more states. RGGI chairwoman Katie Dykes, who is also the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection deputy commissioner, said additional capacity is needed to assist in the integration of more renewable capacity.

"Because we made such a rapid transition to natural gas-fired generation [in New England], we have work to do to get gas pipeline infrastructure developed to serve that gas generation," Dykes said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC., according to Argus.

Policy changes within RGGI may be required as well. A report last month from Acadia Center found that, in order for it to align with new carbon mandates, the RGGI cap would need to be extended until at least 2030. So far, the group said, the regional effort has seen a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, $630 million in energy efficiency funding, and $2.3 billion in consumer savings.

Acadia said the cap's reduction trajectory will need to be corrected to deliver long-term emissions reductions, and the Cost Containment Reserve would need to be removed or altered.

"Unless states correct the cap trajectory, they will be allowing four times as much climate pollution in 2050 as they would under the more universally accepted fixed quantity approach," the report estimated.