By Christen Smith | The Center Square
Credit: Ed Mahon/PA Post
In its latest attempt to derail Gov. Tom Wolf’s climate policies, the General Assembly approved a bill that would prevent the state from joining a carbon cap and trade program without their permission first.
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House Bill 2025 cleared the Senate on a vote of 33-17, including support from four Democrats, nearly one year after Wolf instructed the Department of Environmental Protection to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Area State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, a Republican, voted yes and Democratic State Sen. Steve Santasiero voted no.
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI,) a 10-state coalition of states that charges power producers for the greenhouse gases they emit, gained popularity over the last decade among Pennsylvania’s neighbors to the north and east for lowering the region’s carbon emissions.
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But critics say the program amounts to little more than a carbon tax that will raise energy prices and push Pennsylvania’s lucrative power sector west into Ohio and West Virginia.
Rebecca Oyler, state legislative director for the National Federation of Independent Business in Pennsylvania, said Wolf should take note of the broad and unusual alliance of voices speaking out against this bill – both business groups and trade unions agree its “bad news.”
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“The Governor should allow these voices to be heard by signing the bill,” she said. “A proposal with such far-reaching impacts needs to be considered by the legislature, not pushed by regulatory fiat.”
Supporters say RGGI its anything but a carbon tax, often describing it instead as a market-based program that gives power producers the choice on how to limit emissions within their own operations – from cutting usage to implementing energy efficiency programs, among other options.
PennFuture Energy Center has said joining RGGI also creates more economic opportunities – not less – by bringing in 27,000 jobs and saving 223 million tons of carbon pollution. Director Rob Altenburg said “immediate action is needed” to reverse course in Pennsylvania.
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“Now is not the time for political posturing and games,” he said in a statement Thursday. “The climate crisis continues to worsen by the day, and the federal government has shown time and again it lacks the appetite to take action to protect us … and today’s vote in the state Senate is both a gift to polluters and a step in the wrong direction.”
Wolf has said he would veto the bill should it get to his desk. The DEP is currently 11 months into a rule-making process for the state to join RGGI in 2022.
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