By Julie Gorte



PORTSMOUTH — In 2005, New Hampshire officially joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Earlier this summer, the state committed to going further by making the program’s carbon emission targets more ambitious. The commitment should come as no surprise given that RGGI is spurring innovation and creating clean energy jobs. As the federal government considers carbon pollution standards for power plants, I am proud that our state has shown the way, and I am confident that the new standards will yield both economic and environmental benefits.



The EPA’s carbon pollution standards, which are part of the President’s Climate Action Plan, will set long-term market signals that can stimulate greater investment in lower-carbon electric power generation and help spur the transition to a clean energy economy. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the standard for new power plants, which will set minimum emissions performance expectations for all future power plants. In the coming months, the EPA is expected to set standards for reducing emissions from existing power plants.

Here in the Northeast, we’ve shown what is possible through RGGI. A collaboration of nine northeastern states, RGGI is the first market-based regulatory program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. States sell nearly all emission allowances through auctions and invest the proceeds in consumer benefits including energy efficiency and renewable energy. In the first three years of RGGI, the region’s power plants reduced emissions by 23% while generating $1.3 billion in economic activity. Given our experience, we are living examples of the fact that regulations and policies designed to address climate change do not “kill jobs,” but rather create them.



Companies are driving the growth of our state’s economy and creating jobs while reducing emissions. We can see the examples all around us. Well-established companies such as Stonyfield Farm have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions while also cutting costs and increasing revenues. As just one example of what they’ve achieved, Stonyfield cut energy use per cup of yogurt by 19% in only one year and saved half a million dollars by doing so.

When companies like Stonyfield make investments to reduce their emissions, myriad service and product companies put their skills and technologies to use and people to work. These include everything from construction companies building more efficient buildings to start ups like Seabrook-based SustainX, which is bringing a new energy storage technology to market. The numbers show that these numerous companies are driving job creation. According to a 2011 Brookings Institution report, green jobs in New Hampshire grew at an average rate of 3.5 percent a year from 2003 to 2010, ahead of the rest of New England.



However, while the Northeast has made great strides, investors like myself need more than just the leadership of a few states. The carbon pollution standards are exactly the type of national, long-term, and predictable policies that the investment community requires. My firm, Pax World Management, joined nearly 300 other investors collectively managing over $20 trillion on the 2011 Global Investor Statement on Climate Change, which stated, “Private sector investment will only flow at the scale and pace necessary [to solve climate change] if it is supported by clear, credible and long-term domestic and international policy.”

Businesses also recognize the opportunities from tackling climate change and are voicing their support by signing the Ceres’ Climate Declaration, which states, “Tackling climate change is one of America’s greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century.” Large New Hampshire companies, like Timberland and Stonyfield, have joined neighboring businesses including Coppertoppe Inn, Worthen Industries, and New Hampshire ski areas Cranmore Mountain Resort, Waterville Valley and Loon Mountain in signing the Declaration.



New Hampshire, the Northeast, and the business community have shown us the ample opportunity to grow the economy while reducing emissions. The carbon pollution standards will help businesses like Stonyfield and Timberland, and investors like me, make this progress go further, faster.







Dr. Julie Fox Gorte is a senior vice president at Pax World Management, a Portsmouth-based investment company and a member of Ceres’ Investor Network on Climate Risk. For details, visit http://www.ceres.org/incr