(The Center Square) – After six long years, the fate of Pennsylvania’s entry into a multi-state emissions curbing program is settled.
And much to legislative Republicans’ joy, there will be no Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the commonwealth. Nor will the uncertainty of it spike utility bills for customers already feeling the financial strain from an unpredictable economy.
“We’ve been advocating against that since day one,” said Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr. on the chamber floor Wednesday. “It will result in real, tangible results for energy bills, business growth and economic development.”
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, often called RGGI, began nearly two decades ago with a handful of mid-Atlantic and Northeast states that agreed to cap emissions from power generators. It’s grown to include 10 states, including most of Pennsylvania’s neighbors, and has collectively reduced harmful pollutants by half and at a rate faster than the rest of the country.
The data can be deceiving, according to RGGI’s critics. To them, Pennsylvania’s entry would have been unprecedented and risky. It would have been the only state to do so without legislative approval and, as the region’s top power exporter, the reality of charging generators for emissions would spike costs for everyone. Some estimates put utility bills 30% higher through the end of the decade.
Pennsylvania’s bounty of natural gas deposits, and the more efficient power plants built across the region to serve utility customers, have generated the bulk of those reductions thanks to a transition away from coal. But the looming threat of RGGI has discouraged investment in recent years, diminishing the impact.
“For too many years, Pennsylvania has lost billions of dollars of investment and the related jobs for our allies in the building trades due to the threat of a carbon tax on electric bills,” said Jim Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. “We are hopeful today’s action signals a positive shift that Pennsylvania is committed to securing new, reliable power generation to meet our growing energy needs.”
The program would have done precisely that, said Amanda Leland, managing director at EDF Action, an environmental advocacy group, in a statement released shortly after Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the deal.
“Governor Shapiro and legislative leaders have needlessly sacrificed Pennsylvania’s most promising tool for lowering household electricity bills and reducing pollution.” she said. “Pennsylvanians are calling for cleaner air, lower energy bills and a responsible state budget — not for their Governor to lock the state into dirty, expensive energy sources of the past.”
States in RGGI that will exceed the emissions cap can buy credits from others in an annual auction, the proceeds of which are used to support renewable energy development and customer assistance programs.
“This is not a day for a victory lap,” Leland said. “Today’s action is a huge loss for Pennsylvania families who could have seen RGGI revenue provide relief as electric prices skyrocket across the country.”
Shapiro, who appealed a Commonwealth Court ruling in late 2023 to keep Pennsylvania in the program, said he’d drop it in exchange for a $50.1 billion deal chock full priorities from legislative Democrats – including a state earned income tax credit, nearly $1 billion in additional support for public schools and boosted spending on Medicaid and other human service programs.
Without the concession, the state’s 135-day stalemate may not have ended.
He’s also optimistic that his proposals meant to establish a state-specific version of the program, collectively called the Lightning Plan, may find majority support.
“I think the lightning plan is where we need to be,” he told reporters on Wednesday after signing the budget. “And think of it it has the support of the building trades, it has the support of the environmental groups, it has the support of industry and I think that’s a really good starting off point.”
