Senator Joe Pittman and Representative Jim Struzzi both strongly oppose yesterday’s announcement by Governor Tom Wolf imposing restrictive greenhouse gas regulations that could potentially cause massive harm to Indiana County’s power plant industry.
Wolf has directed the Department of Environmental Protection to institute the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s restrictions in Pennsylvania. The RGGI is a coalition of nine other states: Maryland, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
The governor discussed the idea of joining the coalition with legislators last spring, but finding no agreement, he has decided to join it by executive order.
That does not please Struzzi and Pittman. Struzzi says it would be particularly harmful to Indiana County, which is why he introduced legislation weeks ago to prevent Wolf from moving forward without the legislature’s approval.
Pittman says the governor is trying an end run around the legislature, and he aims to stop it with legislative action. Pittman says the coal and waste coal power plants in the area sustain close to 800 well-paying jobs, and he will fight for them and their families.
Wolf is seeking to bind Pennsylvania to the 2015 U.N. Paris Climate Agreement, which the United States has since abandoned. Critics say Wolf’s plan will kill coal-fired power plants, one calling it a “targeted assassination” of the coal industry.
