State Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Bradford County), chairman of the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, recently hosted a roundtable discussion with local business leaders at Flynn Energy in Towanda to discuss how changes to the energy industry will have a local impact.
“Our region’s leading natural gas production has created thousands of jobs, including right here in Bradford and Susquehanna counties,” Yaw said. “It continues to deliver home energy savings for consumers and provides a clean energy source to better the environment. We must ensure that continues.”
Bradford and Susquehanna counties produced more natural gas than the Gulf of Mexico in 2021, and Pennsylvania produced one-fifth of the U.S. 32.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas yield.
Yaw spoke about Senate Bill 275, which would prevent local building codes from banning energy choice. Limiting fuel choice threatens Pennsylvania’s energy independence, he said.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a program that uses carbon taxes to artificially limit emissions from the power sector.
“Commonwealth Court was prudent to press pause on RGGI, given the administration’s gross underestimations of how much it will inflate energy costs for all Pennsylvanians,” Yaw said. “We need to pursue climate solutions that encourage collaboration with our energy sector, not regressive and unconstitutional taxes meant to destroy it and leave us reliant on foreign oil and gas for decades to come.”