Please leave this field empty
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
  • About
  • Problems
  • Campaigns
  • Impacts
  • Research
  • Contact
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
  • facebook
  • twitter
Please leave this field empty
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
$
Menu
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Search
Please leave this field empty
  • facebook
  • twitter

New Study: Cap and Trade Program Drives Pollution Increases in Vulnerable Communities

Groundbreaking analysis shows that under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), pollution increases in neighborhoods with poorer communities and communities of color 

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • google-plus
  • envelope

We all need safe food and clean water.

Donate
11.19.19

For Immediate Release 
 

WASHINGTON, DC - New research from Food & Water Watch shows that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has been misleadingly lauded as an effective means of reducing carbon emissions, actually increases the pollution burden in vulnerable communities near the power plants covered by the cap and trade program.

The findings are especially significant as lawmakers seek to expand RGGI. New Jersey will re-join next year, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has put forward a plan to join, and Democratic gains in Virginia elections this year are expected to yield a push for that state to join as well.

The Food & Water Watch analysis studied emissions from power plants covered under RGGI, a cap and trade program that covers nine states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont). 

Research has consistently shown that polluting facilities are located in neighborhoods with more people of color and higher levels of poverty. The same patterns are evident for power plants covered by the RGGI trading program.

While overall carbon emissions decline across the region, the research finds that neighborhoods that saw increases in carbon dioxide emissions from RGGI facilities had more people of color and were poorer than neighborhoods that experienced reduced emissions during the same period.

These disparate impacts were even more dramatic when factoring in emissions of co-pollutants like particulate matter. Neighborhoods that experienced increases of both types of emissions displayed even wider disparities, with higher proportions of people of color and lower median household incomes compared to neighborhoods that experienced decreases in both pollutants.

“The problem with these cap and trade programs is simple: Polluters can continue to spew emissions that are hazardous to human health and the environment,” said Alison Grass, Research Director at Food & Water Watch. “The states that are already participating in RGGI, and those poised to join, must confront the fact that this program intensifies pollution in vulnerable communities. Given RGGI’s track record, it is clear that cap and trade is not a climate solution, it is an environmental justice disaster that serves to intensify pollution in low-income communities and communities of color.”

The study gathered annual carbon emissions data between 2011-2013 and 2014-2016, to capture any changes due to a major revision in the pollution ‘cap’ in 2014. In addition to gathering data on carbon dioxide (the pollutant targeted by RGGI), the study also looked at particulate emissions that are not covered, but are nonetheless linked to a host of health problems. Those emissions were evaluated for 2011 and 2014. 

While RGGI does not account for these harmful co-pollutants, this environmental justice analysis gives us a broader understanding of the harmful impacts of fossil fuel infrastructure. The power plants covered by RGGI emit pollutants like mercury, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). These substances are linked to a host of health complications including respiratory infections, certain types of cancer, bronchitis, asthma, and heart disease. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is an especially harmful pollutant, associated with airway inflammation, asthma, lung infections, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases.

These findings mirror a 2018 study of California’s cap and trade program, which found that more than half of the facilities in that program actually increased carbon emissions as well as toxic co-pollutants. Like the new RGGI study, the California analysis determined those increases were most dramatic in communities with more economically and socially disadvantaged residents. 

###

Food & Water Watch mobilizes people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people’s health, communities and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Monsanto's Roundup is a "probable human carcinogen." We need to ban it!

Get the latest on your food and water with news, research and urgent actions.

Please leave this field empty

Latest News

  • Trump’s Out, Biden’s In! Now The Fight Of Our Lives On Climate Begins.

    Trump’s Out, Biden’s In! Now The Fight Of Our Lives On Climate Begins.

  • Biden’s 100-Day Must-Do List for a Cleaner, Healthier Country

    Biden’s 100-Day Must-Do List for a Cleaner, Healthier Country

  • Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

    Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

See More News & Opinions

For Media: See our latest press releases and statements

Food & Water Insights

Looking for more insights and our latest research?

Visit our policy & research library
  • Renewable Natural Gas: Same Ol' Climate-Polluting Methane, Cleaner-Sounding Name

  • The Case to Ban Fracking on Federal Lands

  • Dangerously Deep: Fracking’s Threat to Human Health

Fracking activist with stickersFracking activist in hatLegal team loves family farmsFood & Water Watch organizer protecting your food

Work locally, make a difference.

Get active in your community.

Food & Water Impact

  • Victories
  • Stories
  • Facts
  • Trump, Here's a Better Use for $25 Billion

  • Here's How We're Going to Build the Clean Energy Revolution

  • How a California Activist Learned to Think Locally

Keep drinking water safe and affordable for everyone.

Take Action
food & water watch logo
en Español

Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold & uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people’s health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

Food & Water Watch is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Food & Water Action is a 501(c)4 organization.

Food & Water Watch Headquarters

1616 P Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20036

Main: 202.683.2500

Contact your regional office.

Work with us: See all job openings

  • Problems
    • Broken Democracy
    • Climate Change & Environment
    • Corporate Control of Food
    • Corporate Control of Water
    • Factory Farming & Food Safety
    • Fracking
    • GMOs
    • Global Trade
    • Pollution Trading
  • Solutions
    • Advocate Fair Policies
    • Legal Action
    • Organizing for Change
    • Research & Policy Analysis
  • Our Impact
    • Facts
    • Stories
    • Victories
  • Take Action
    • Get Active Where You Live
    • Organizing Tools
    • Find an Event
    • Volunteer with Us
    • Live Healthy
    • Donate
  • Give
    • Give Now
    • Give Monthly
    • Give a Gift Membership
    • Membership Options
    • Fundraise
    • Workplace Giving
    • Planned Giving
    • Other Ways to Give
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Learn more about Food & Water Action www.foodandwateraction.org.
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • 2021 © Food & Water Watch
  • www.foodandwaterwatch.org
  • Terms of Service
  • Data Usage Policy