From The News-Times:

“I am disappointed by the Attorney General’s decision, which holds that ratepayers should once again carry the burden — in this case, the burden of RGGI compliance — at a time when I have been trying to ease the strain on their finances,” Rell said in a press statement Monday. However, Rell’s aides said Monday that she will not challenge Blumenthal’s ruling.

Blumenthal’s decision Monday clears the way for the state to participate in RGGI, a 10-state compact that is one of the first attempts in the United States to regulate carbon dioxide and other man-made gases that environmentalists believe are now fueling ongoing global warming.

The decision also means that the money raised this fall by the initiative — which in Connecticut could total tens of millions of dollars — will provide money for programs that support energy efficiency and the expansion of alternative energy initiatives in the state. That’s the money Rell had wanted to use, in part, to provide ratepayer relief.

RGGI — pronounced “Reggie” — addresses carbon dioxide emissions from power plants from New England to Maryland.

It calls for those plants to stabilize the amount of CO2 they’re producing by 2014, then reduce them between 2015 and 2018 by 10 percent.

To do this, RGGI will institute a market-based cap-and-trade system.

Under the system, plants that produce more than their allowable limits of CO2 will have to buy credits to continue to pollute; plants that cut their pollution can sell those credits. Similar cap-and-trade systems have successfully reduced the amount of sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain, and the nitrogen released from sewage treatment plants.

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