State Reps. James B. Struzzi, II (R-Indiana), Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion/Armstrong/Forest) and Pam Snyder (D-Greene/Fayette/Washington) recently issued a memorandum on the potential economic impacts of a carbon tax.
The lawmakers wrote that a carbon tax, such as one introduced through joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), would lead to the shutdown of the state’s coal-fired electric generating units. This, the representatives said, would eliminate jobs and tax revenues.
A carbon tax would also put the state’s natural gas plants at a competitive disadvantage as compared to natural gas plants in other states, the lawmakers said.
“Any carbon tax will ultimately be paid for by Pennsylvania residents and businesses,” the lawmakers wrote. “Given Pennsylvania is already ahead of the carbon dioxide reduction goals established under Governor Wolf’s Climate Action Plan, why would we want to jeopardize thousands of Pennsylvania jobs and trigger significant higher electricity rate increases when the existing competitive market has already achieved these gains?”
The representatives said that they plan to introduce legislation that would delineate a process for legislative approval for Pennsylvania to introduce a carbon tax or enter into a multi-state program such as RGGI.
“A carbon tax is a major energy and fiscal policy initiative, and if such a tax is to be imposed on Pennsylvania industries, we believe it must emanate from the General Assembly,” the lawmakers wrote in the memorandum. “In addition to the fiscal impact on Pennsylvania manufacturers, coal and gas electric generation, consumers, and future economic investments made in our state, this also implicates serious constitutional principles of checks and balances that merit a strong, bipartisan response from the Legislative Branch.”