A new analysis from the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy reveals just how devastating Abigail Spanberger’s radical energy agenda would be for Virginia families. If Spanberger succeeds in dragging Virginia back into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), Virginians will face $500 million in higher electricity costs every single year.

Spanberger has pledged to rejoin the RGGI compact and reinstate the carbon tax, reversing one of Gov. Youngkin’s most successful common-sense initiatives to lower electricity bills. The Jefferson Institute notes that when Virginia was part of RGGI from 2021–2023, the state collected $828 million in carbon taxes—costs that Dominion and other utilities simply passed on to customers in the form of higher monthly bills.

The carbon tax rate has skyrocketed. In 2020, the cost was $5.65 per ton of CO2. By the time Virginia exited in 2023, it had risen 163% to $14.88. Today it stands at $22.25 per ton—four times higher than just five years ago. Had Virginia stayed in during 2024 and 2025, taxpayers would have been hit with nearly another $1 billion in costs.

Spanberger, who has repeatedly backed California-style energy mandates and electric vehicle requirements, is siding with the radical green lobby, not Virginia families. Her scheme would make electricity more expensive, less reliable, and subject Virginia families to Wall Street speculators who profit off the RGGI secondary market.

By contrast, Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears has pledged to continue the Youngkin-Sears policy of keeping Virginia out of RGGI, ensuring families and businesses are not forced to bankroll another tax that drives up costs and threatens energy security.

The choice this November could not be clearer: Abigail Spanberger’s $500 million energy tax or Winsome Sears’s commitment to putting Virginia families first and fighting to lower costs.

This article originally appeared here, at Virginia GOP.