State representative Jim Struzzi is continuing to encourage Indiana County residents to submit testimony to the Environmental Quality Board concerning the state joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, also known as RGGI.
While Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has said that shutting down the power plants would create 30,000 jobs, reduce carbon emissions by 188 million tons in eight years, and reduce other pollutants in Indiana County’s air, opponents like Struzzi said the move would mark a fatal blow to the energy producing industry in Indiana County. They say the closures will actually cost thousands of jobs, cripple school districts, and their scientific research says there will be no emissions gains. On top of that, Pennsylvania would need to import energy instead of exporting it.
In an interview on Thursday on Indiana in the Morning, State Representative Jim Struzzi said that joining RGGI was a unilateral decision by the Governor and did not take the area’s economy into consideration. To that end, Struzzi said he will reintroduce a house bill that would prevent such decisions from happening in the future.
While he did not go into detail, Struzzi said there were a few tweaks to the bill to give it a better chance of passing.
Public comment may be made by e-mailing RegComments@pa.gov, or by regular mail to: Environmental Quality Board, P.O. Box 8477, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8477. The deadline for testimony is January 14th.
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