by Nick Minock

ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — After she takes the oath of office next month, Virginia’s Democratic Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger plans to re-enter the Commonwealth into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

RGGI is the first cap and trade regional initiative implemented in the United States.

But, Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin warns that if Democrats rejoin RGGI, Virginians’ electricity bills will increase.

“The threat of runaway electricity bills is real, and we worked hard during this administration to keep them from running away,” Youngkin told 7News in an interview with Nick Minock.

Youngkin pulled Virginia out of RGGI shortly after he took office, which he claimed has saved Virginians close to $1 billion, with some estimates suggesting it saved the average Virginian two percent on their electricity bill each year.

Although Spanberger campaigned on lowering costs, including energy bills, she pledged to rejoin the cap and trade program on the campaign trail.

“I’ve been saving Virginians $500 million a year on their electricity bill, and they want to go right back in,” said Youngkin. “And RGGI doesn’t work. It is a tax. It gets passed straight through to the consumer who has no choice, no nothing. And we are seeing even Democratic governors pull out of RGGI, because they know it’s just a scam. And I’m hopeful that the incoming governor can recognize this.”

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell and other state Democrats were outraged when Youngkin pulled Virginia out of RGGI.

“Hundreds of jurisdictions have gotten the benefit of the investments created by RGGI,” Surovell told 7News. “That’s the basic idea is to try to sort of monetize the costs of carbon pollution and create better incentives to get the carbon pollution down.”

Surovell is applauding Spanberger’s decision to rejoin the program aimed at reducing CO2 emissions.

“I’m glad to see that we have a governor [Spanberger] that wants to follow the law, because Virginia law said that we have to be a member of RGGI, but I’m also glad that she shares our goals in reducing carbon emissions, which is what RGGI is designed to do,” said Surovell.

7News asked Surovell about the costs RGGI may add to residential utility bills. Surovell pointed to the existing costs of climate change.

“I think what Governor Youngkin misses is that carbon pollution and climate is causing us all, and methane pollution as well, is causing us all kinds of damage, and we see that damage every day in the increased rainfall that we see out in the mountains of Virginia,” said Surovell. “We see it in the rising seas that are causing places like Norfolk and Virginia Beach to have to spend tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in flood abatement. We see it up here in northern Virginia, in our neighborhoods, which are seeing increased flooding due to heavy rainfall, and we need to start taking action to do something about this.”

Several East Coast states already participate in RGGI, including Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.

This year, Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has long been skeptical of RGGI, ended his state’s participation in the initiative.