Tell Your Representatives in Albany to Stop the RGGI Cap & Trade Tax!

Why RGGI Should Be Repealed in New York:

NY’s Participation in RGGI is Unconstitutional:
? No legislation, participation through Gov. Pataki’s Memorandum of Understanding and Gov. Paterson’s Executive Order
? Taxation without representation
? A lawsuit has been filed in NYS Supreme Court challenging it’s constitutionality

Increases Costs to Energy:
? $900 Million in permits (as of 9/2011) sold as a requirement to energy plants that emit CO2
? Increased cost of production passed on to consumers, considered an ultra vires tax
? Rates for electricity could increase anywhere from 2% to 23% according to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (A.I.M.)
? NYS has the 2nd highest electricity costs according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council’s 2010 Energy Cost Index (which cited data for 2008 through October from the U.S. Energy Information Administration)
? NYS electricity prices are 58 percent higher than the national average

Lack of Transparency:
? The RGGI program operates in secret with little know about who is trading on this government-created carbon commodities market
? RGGI has refused open records requests claiming they are a non-governmental agency despite having been created by ten state governments
? To date, RGGI has not released information regarding salaries and benefits paid to RGGI bureaucrats
? Companies trading on this carbon commodities market are unknown – only a list of prospective bidders is released
? Prospective bidders are a “who’s who” of Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase

RGGI is Ineffective:
? According to RGGI’s own consultants, there will be no drop in CO2 emissions for two decades due to RGGI bureaucrats setting the cap too low
? Gov. Christie said “This program is not effective in reducing greenhouse gases and is unlikely to be in the future. The whole system is not working as it was intended to work. It is a failure.”

“RGGI has not changed behavior and it does not reduce emissions,” Christie said. “RGGI does nothing more than tax electricity, tax our citizens, tax our businesses, with no discernable or measurable impact upon our environment.”

Adverse Affects on Plants and Communities:
? Making it difficult for energy producing plants to stay in business, threatening closures
? Loss of good paying jobs
? Loss of tax base directly affect the county, towns and school districts
? $326,693,566 taken out of economy in NY due to the required purchase of permits
? $90 Million diverted by Governor Paterson to balance the FY 2010 budget, not to the green initiatives it was intended for
? The costs associated with this regulation contributes to NYS’s 50th rating in Business Climate

Bottom line: RGGI is unconstitutional, ineffective, lacks transparency, drives electricity costs up, and puts jobs and communities in jeopardy.