Over the strong objections of opponents of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission yesterday approved by a 3-2 vote Governor Tom Wolf’s mandate that Pennsylvania join the eleven-state compact, becoming the first state to bypass its legislature to do so. The same commission in February had recommended a one-year moratorium on joining RGGI and had questioned Wolf’s unilateral authority to order it.
Among those objecting to Pennsylvania joining RGGI at the IRRC hearing yesterday were Representative Jim Struzzi, Senator Joe Pittman, and Homer-Center School District Superintendent Curtis Whitesel. Their testimony was based on the projected job losses that would result from the closures of Indiana County’s coal-fired power plants.
Pittman told the commission that the power plants have adapted and evolved to address climate concerns and would continue to do so if given the chance, but RGGI would shut them down. Told by one commissioner that the county’s power plants will shut down eventually anyway, Pittman said they have evolved in the past and are evolving now,.
An angry Struzzi said after the vote that DEP should be ashamed of itself and its callousness and lack of empathy for the people of Indiana County who will lose their jobs disgusts him. Both Struzzi and Pittman criticized Wolf and his administration for cutting the legislature out of the RGGI discussion and for not coming to Indiana County to talk to the people whose jobs will be lost.
While it is called the Independent Regulatory Review Commission, the panel is effectively controlled by the governor’s appointees. Two members are chosen by the Democrats, two by the Republicans, and one by the governor.
Representative Struzzi will be on Indiana In the Morning on WCCS at 8:45 this morning.
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