Virginia’s Bid to Join Carbon Emissions Trading Pact Blocked (1)

Virginia won’t participate in the Northeastern carbon dioxide emissions cap-and-trade initiative anytime soon after all.

Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed a state budget plan May 2 without vetoing a provision that blocks the Commonwealth from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a nine-state emissions trading program for power plants. Virginia would have been the second-largest state by carbon dioxide emissions in the program, behind New York.

Northam has previously vetoed lawmakers’ attempts to undercut Virginia’s participation in the regional pact.

Alena Yarmosky, the governor’s press secretary, told Bloomberg Law May 3 that Northam wanted ...