The State House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee yesterday approved Representative Jim Struzzi’s bill to block Governor Tom Wolf’s effort to join the Regional Grenhouse Gas Initiative, the job-killing multi-state compact known as RGGI.
House Bill 2025 would require legislative authorization before the state could impose a carbon tax on electric generators, such as Indiana County’s four coal-fired power plants.
Struzzi says Pennsylvania is already ahead of the carbon dioxide reduction goals established under the governor’s Climate Action Plan, yet Wolf is still attempting to tie the state to a policy that would “jeopardize thousands of Pennsylvania jobs and trigger significantly higher electricity rate increases.”
Last week on Indiana In the Morning on WCCS, Struzzi said the bill gives a voice back to the people so they can have a say in the process.
In that same interview, Struzzi said he has been told the Homer City Generating Station would close within a year if RGGI is implemented. In addition to the Homer City plant, Indiana County is home to the Keystone plant in Shelocta, the Conemaugh Power Plant in Huff, and the nearby Seward Power Plant, the largest waste coal burning plant in the world.
Struzzi’s bill now goes to the full House for consideration. A companion bill has been introduced by Senator Joe Pittman in the Senate.
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