In Harrisburg yesterday, the Senate Environmental Resources & Energy Committee approved Senator Joe Pittman’s bill that would require legislative approval of Governor Tom Wolf’s proposal to have Pennsylvania join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the 11-state compact that requires power plants to purchase allowances for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Wolf ordered the Department of Environmental Protection to join RGGI in October of 2019, cutting the legislature out of the decision-making process.
Pittman spoke before the committee yesterday to advocate for the bill, which would require DEP to publish its RGGI intentions in the PA Bulletin and provide a public comment period of at least 180 days. In that time, the agency would have to hold a minimum of four public hearings in locations that would be directly affected by the proposal, and then submit a report to the House and Senate detailing specific economic and environmental impacts created by joining RGGI.
Pittman talked about what the bill does not do.
Pittman says electricity consumers would pay the cost of RGGI, which he says amounts to a tax, one which that has now grown from $300 million to $500 million.
The senator says you only need to talk to the workers whose jobs will disappear if you want to see how devastating RGGI would be.
The bipartisan bill mirrors legislation that Wolf vetoed last September.
SENATOR JOE PITTMAN’S REMARKS BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON TUESDAY:
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