Green Group Sues to Force Virginia to Stay in RGGI Climate Pact

An environmental group is challenging Virginia’s efforts to withdraw from a climate pact with nearly a dozen Northeastern states, arguing the state’s Republican administration lacks the authority to override legislation passed by the state’s General Assembly.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, which filed suit Monday in the Circuit Court for the County of Fairfax to block the withdrawal, argues the state’s Department of Environmental Quality and Air Pollution Control Board can’t pull Virginia out of the states’ carbon trading program, launched as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative nearly 15 years ago.

RGGI supporters argue that Virginia’s General Assembly formally put ...