DV Journal

Pennsylvania is an energy powerhouse. We are the nation’s number three energy producer, number three coal producer, and the number two natural gas provider. Not only do we meet our own energy needs, but we also meet the needs of other states that depend on us to keep their own energy grids up and running. Sixty plants powered by fossil fuels account for over 60 percent of Pennsylvania’s electric generation.

It may make some sense for legislators in the 11 states who joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to support the pact. After all, those states do not come close to the number of electricity production facilities we have here in Pennsylvania. Those states will not have to deal with the effects of rising consumer prices, plant closures, and job loss on a mass scale.

The carbon tax imposed by RGGI will result in immediate job loss across our energy sector. According to the Department of Environmental Protection, all five remaining coal power plants will be shuttered within a year of enactment. Not only will those workers be out of the job, but so will many of those in the coal production business which feeds into these power plants.

As companies look to invest in future natural gas facilities, are they going to invest in Pennsylvania or instead invest in states like Ohio and West Virginia who will not be subject to RGGI’s burdensome regulations and taxes?

The acceleration of Pennsylvania’s booming energy industry has been a blessing to our state. Many of our coal and natural gas energy production plants are in economically distressed communities. These areas were decimated as Pennsylvania’s manufacturing base shifted overseas in the past few decades.

Counties like Indiana, Fayette, and Montour have seen energy industry jobs provide a lifeline to the community. We are told by proponents of RGGI that those who are soon to lose their jobs will have to find jobs elsewhere such as in the renewable energy sector. There is no guarantee of that industry providing anywhere near the same amount of positions and pay that are enjoyed by fossil fuel energy sector workers. We all remember the failure of Solyndra in 2011 after being propped up with millions from the federal government. Renewable energy jobs cannot be relied on to replace the damage of RGGI.

Immediate job loss will not be the only negative impact of RGGI. Like all taxes, the carbon tax will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity rates. A report by the Penn State Center for Energy Law and Policy found that consumers would pay up to $2 billion more in electricity costs over nine years.

Energy costs in the U.S. are already up by 25 percent compared to last year. Inflation in the economy as a whole has compounded the struggles of lower and middle-class families. We cannot afford to make high energy costs permanent by entering RGGI.

Supporters of RGGI say that billions in revenue from the carbon tax will be generated for the general fund and “re-invested” into struggling communities. I would much rather have money kept in the pockets of the everyday people as opposed to being subject to misguided spending by legislators and bureaucrats.

Lastly, RGGI will have adverse implications for national security. Crucial American allies in Europe rely on Pennsylvania natural gas imports to offset dependence on imports from the predatory government of Russia.

For example, vulnerabilities in the face of a more hostile Moscow include economic blackmail due to heavy reliance on Russian oil and gas. To counter this threat, nations like Lithuania and Poland built Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals as a way to reduce dependence on Russian energy. Due to cost and accessibility, most of the LNG imported thus far has come from Norway.

Imports from the United States began in 2017 and European leaders hope to expand the amount of LNG they purchase from Pennsylvania in the future. RGGI’s carbon tax to stunt the natural gas industry will make that quite difficult.

Some will say that any of the aforementioned adverse effects of RGGI pale in comparison to the cost of inaction to combat climate change. But Pennsylvania has already been making steady progress to limit CO2 emissions.  According to the Consumer Energy Alliance, emissions in Pa. have dropped by 18 percent since 1990. Any further drops in emissions resulting from RGGI will be negligible. Fossil fuel-powered energy plants will simply relocate to less restrictive states and release the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Every RGGI participant state joined the pact after receiving approval from their respective legislatures. Governor Wolf, as he has done throughout his tenure, acted unilaterally to join our state to RGGI  after not getting what he wanted from the General Assembly.

This sets a dangerous precedent. The General Assembly is the body that is closest to the people of Pennsylvania. No Governor, regardless of political party, should have unchecked unilateral power to impose a tax and enter our state into such a consequential interstate pact. This week, the state Senate acted by voting to disapprove the regulation to join RGGI. Next up is a vote in the House of Representatives. Following passage there, Gov. Tom Wolf will presumably use his veto pen and a legal battle in the courts will ensue.

One thing is for sure. RGGI will do far more harm than good.

Democrat Josh Shapiro wants Gov. Tom Wolf’s job, but he’s breaking with the incumbent’s politics — at least on one key energy policy. And now Pennsylvania legislators are responding to the attorney general’s opposition to Pennsylvania entering the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

“We need to take real action to address climate change, protect and create energy jobs and ensure Pennsylvania has reliable, affordable, and clean power for the long term,” Shapiro said in a statement. “As governor, I will implement an energy strategy which passes that test, and it’s not clear to me that RGGI does.”

Sens. Gene Yaw (R-23) and Joe Pittman (R-41) reacted in a joint statement.

“Candidate Josh Shapiro acknowledged today that RGGI could have a detrimental impact on Pennsylvania. We only hope that Attorney General Josh Shapiro will look at RGGI in the same light.”

Pittsburgh public radio station WESA reports Shapiro made similar comments to the Indiana Gazette and officials from the Boilermakers’ union.

“He told me he does not stand for RGGI the way it stands right now and he feels it should be run through the Legislature,” said John Hughes, the business manager of Boilermakers Local 154. “We should get everyone to the table and talk about it…. I said, ‘we are going to support the guy who doesn’t support RGGI,’ and he told me, ‘I can’t support it as is.’”

Pittsburgh Works Together, an alliance of labor, business, and civic leaders, is also opposed to RGGI.

“It will lead to significantly higher power prices in Pennsylvania, which will hurt the state’s efforts to rebuild a manufacturing base, and it will adversely affect low-and fixed-income households and seniors.”

Climate activism is believed to be a key part of the Democratic Party’s coalition. Wolf has certainly embraced it, performing a legally dubious end-run around the legislature to force the state into RGGI’s cap-and-trade carbon tax system.

“Climate change is one of the most critical issues we face and I have made it a priority to address ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Wolf said in September after the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRCC) voted 3-2 for Pennsylvania to join RGGI. “By participating in RGGI, Pennsylvania is taking a historic, proactive, and progressive approach that will have significant positive environmental, public health and economic impacts.”

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a cooperative, market-based effort among the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia to cap and reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector. It represents the first cap-and-invest regional initiative implemented in the United States.

States sell nearly all CO2 allowances through auctions and invest proceeds in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other consumer benefit programs. The costs of those allowances are felt in consumers’ energy bills.

“RGGI will dive up energy costs, chase away jobs to other states, and do little to nothing to improve the environment,” said Senators Yaw and Pittman. “That has been our position on RGGI since the outset, however, Attorney General Josh Shapiro had the power to stop this as part of the regulatory review process previously, and his office failed to act.”

The senators added Shapiro’s office could have another chance to review this regulation in the future — if the legislature’s efforts to stop this regulation through the concurrent resolution process is unsuccessful.

“We hope the actions of Attorney General Josh Shapiro match the words of Candidate Josh Shapiro if or when he has another chance to put a stop to the devastating impacts of RGGI.”

Other legislators concerned about RGGI include Sen. Bob Mensch. The Republican from Berks, Bucks, and Montgomery Counties told Delaware Valley Journal in September that RGGI endangers Pennsylvania jobs and Wolf needed approval from the legislature.

“With RGGI, the argument is it is environmental and the legislature should not be involved in that according to the governor,” said Mensch. “I think it’s way too much power placed in the hands of the governor because you have one person who will have control over the pricing of energy, the placement of jobs, and that is way too much-concentrated power.”