In 2008, a gaggle of states within the northeast usa introduced an emissions buying and selling application, the neighborhood Greenhouse gasoline Initiative (RGGI). With RGGI, those states -- Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, manhattan, Rhode Island, and Vermont -- accomplished what have been thought of politically most unlikely: they pressured polluters to pay the general public for his or her emissions. The states finished this by way of undertaking auctions of emissions "allowances"; by means of 2014, they'd raised greater than $2.2 billion in sales. during this first in-depth exam of RGGI, Leigh Raymond describes this progressive and influential coverage version and explains the sensible and theoretical implications for weather coverage. different cap-and-trade schemes have been criticized for supplying deepest earnings instead of public merits, permitting deepest enterprises to generate income via trading useful "rights to pollute." RGGI, in contrast, directed almost all emissions public sale sales to courses reaping benefits the general public at huge. through reframing the problem when it comes to public merits, environmental advocates emphasised the general public possession of the atmospheric commons and personal businesses' accountability to pay for his or her use of it. Raymond argues that this type of "normative reframing" is critical not just for environmental coverage making but in addition for theories of the coverage approach, supporting to provide an explanation for and are expecting surprising coverage change.