Against all odds.

The state’s major business associations opposed it. The environmentalists hated it. The Public Advocate’s Office warned against it. The Republicans turned up their noses and voted a united “no.”

But, as we predicted on Saturday, none of it mattered.

RGGI (nickname: Reggie), the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, legislation passed both houses of the New Jersey Legislature on Monday–the final day of the session–and will be signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine.

Why? Because PSEG, the state’s super utility wanted it, that’s why. And why did they want something that engendered such broad-based dyspepsia? For the answer, see our previous post Who’s Reggie and why is he so disliked?

At the end of that post we threw in a wisecrack about not owning PSEG stock…yet. In retrospect, we should have been on the line to our broker instead of our blogger service. On the same day the energy/environmental bill passed, PSEG stock hit a record high.

Our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics, today carried the Gannett story on the bill’s passage —Bill environmentalists hate clears Legislature as well as Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine’s observations on the cap and trade approach to carbon reduction–Let’s cap and trade these energy plans. You also should check out Ledger business writer Tom Johnson’s story–PSEG stock tops the century mark.