Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

an initiative of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States of the U.S.

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Participating States

Ten states participate in RGGI: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

These pioneering states are implementing the first mandatory cap-and-trade program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

State-based innovation has historically led the nation in many other environmental and energy policy areas, and this continues with RGGI.

The authority of the individual states is the basis for the RGGI CO2 Budget Trading programs. Through laws and/or rules, each state limits emissions of CO2 from electric power plants, creates CO2 allowances and establishes the state's participation in CO2 allowance auctions. A "Model Rule" drafted jointly by the states provided a coordinating framework as individual states developed their laws, rules or regulations.

Regulated power plants will be able to use a CO2 allowance issued by any of the ten participating states to demonstrate compliance with an individual state program. In this manner, the ten individual state programs, in aggregate, will function as a single regional compliance market for CO2 emissions.