Policymakers and advocates in New Jersey are calling on Governor Chris Christie to return $65 million he diverted from a carbon-trading fund designed to help the state’s ratepayers reduce their energy bills. After announcing last Thursday that he was pulling his state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), calling the program a “tax” and a “failure,” Christie has shown no intentions of giving back the tens of millions of dollars he took from the fund to help close a budget gap.
Last year, Governor Christie raided a RGGI fund set aside for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that brings back $3 to $4 in value to ratepayers for every $1 invested. Now, some members of the New Jersey assembly are calling on Christie to return those “taxes” to the businesses and homeowners who benefit from those investments.
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