Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is saying that if the state passes his own cap-and-trade plan for power plants, he would pull the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Under his plan, called the Pennsylvania Climate Emissions Reduction Initiative, or PACER, the state Department of Environmental Protection would set the cap for the amount of carbon emissions that a power plant can produce and release into the air, but similar to RGGI, the power plants would need to purchase credits from the state to offset the pollution they permit. Shapiro says that this will help the state maintain its energy independence, save homeowners on their utility bills and create thousands of jobs. He claimed in the first five years alone, Pennsylvanians would save $252 million.
The idea has not met with approval from local legislators. Both State Representative Jim Struzzi and Senator Joe Pittman have called the cap-and-trade system a tax, and while Governor Shapiro is going through the state legislature for approval, Struzzi hopes his colleagues will not approve it.
Senator Joe Pittman said that the best way to advance any meaningful conversation about energy policy is for Governor Shapiro to drop RGGI and the appeal to the state supreme court. He also said that any cap-and-trade program applying solely to Pennsylvania will not help the state.
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