The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) tried unsuccessfully to circumvent the legislature and push through a proposed regulation on the state joining the controversial Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state compact to limit carbon emissions from power plant operators.
Specifically, the DEP on Nov. 29 submitted the RGGI regulation to the Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin Office for publication, but the Legislative Reference Bureau stepped in and denied it the next day because under the Regulatory Review Act, the General Assembly must first be able to take action on an ongoing RGGI disapproval resolution passed in October by the state Senate.
“Once again, Governor Wolf and his administration have apparently taken the law into their own hands,” State Rep. Lee James (R-Venango/Butler) said in a Dec. 3 statement. “Luckily, the Legislative Reference Bureau explained the law to them.”
The Legislative Reference Bureau publishes new rules in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, but on Nov. 30 said it would not do so for the RGGI regulation until the disapproval resolution is resolved and the state House’s review of it is completed. Under state law, the Legislature may block proposed regulations by passing a resolution and then sending it to the governor’s desk.
The Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) on Sept. 1 voted 3-2 in favor of the RGGI plan to create a cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that would allow Pennsylvania to join the RGGI as early as next year.
The subsequently filed state Senate’s RGGI disapproval resolution to the proposed RGGI regulation is led by opponents in the Republican-controlled Assembly who have slammed Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2019 executive order to make Pennsylvania the 12th state to join the RGGI. The initiative currently includes 11 eastern and mid-Atlantic states that have banded together to launch individual cap-and-trade programs aimed at cutting CO2 emissions by 30 percent.
The Senate’s disapproval resolution is based on the grounds that it will result in a tax on carbon emissions and fossil fuels, which legally requires legislative approval.
Meanwhile, the RGGI is based on a mandatory auction system that would require Pennsylvania’s fossil-fuel power plants to buy carbon credits, which critics say would result in higher energy prices for consumers and handicap the state’s ability to continue exporting both natural gas and electricity to other states. The result, they warn, will be the closure of several power plants that run on gas or coal, as well as pinching off demand for gas produced in the state’s Marcellus Shale fields.
RGGI supporters, on the other hand, including several environmental groups, have urged Wolf to use his veto power should the disapproval resolution reach his desk.
The RGGI regulation, according to James, has put Pennsylvania at a critical juncture with thousands of power plant employees in the Commonwealth in jeopardy of losing their jobs, while forcing unaffordable monthly energy bills on families and negatively impacting the state’s economy.
The congressman cited a June 25 report on StateImpact Pennsylvania that says joining RGGI will cost energy consumers $2 billion over a nine-year span, which equates to families having to pay roughly $400 more per month on energy needs.
“All of the RGGI states have experienced job losses and increased cost of living, while failing to significantly reduce CO2 emissions or impacting climate trends,” said James. “That theme would remain the same in the Commonwealth.”
In fact, some 22,000 jobs could be eliminated, resulting in nearly $282 million in lost income and $7.7 billion in total economic loss, said James, citing the CO2 Coalition’s July report entitled Pennsylvania’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Relies on Faulty Data.
The lawmaker on Friday denounced the DEP, the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) that developed the regulation, and gubernatorial candidate Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
Shapiro, who announced this fall that he was running for governor in 2022, has indicated he is not sold on RGGI. Shapiro had been endorsed by Wolf, who is not running for re-election due to term limits. Shapiro said that, if elected, he would consult with “workers and affected communities” before making any final decisions on RGGI.
“Attorney General Shapiro in his official capacity approved the final RGGI regulation, while gubernatorial candidate Shapiro questioned the policy when talking to members of the building trades unions,” James said. “The fact is, RGGI is a failed attempt to impact climate trends. Joining RGGI would harm Pennsylvanians while having little impact on climate trends.
“When will Gov. Wolf and his extremist allies stop governing by talking points,” James said, “and start governing cooperatively as our founders and the constitution intended?”
A spokesman for PA House Republicans said a vote on the Senate disapproval resolution is expected during the week of Dec. 13.
“The House will be taking action on [the] disapproval resolution, which already passed the Senate,” James confirmed.