Democrats sacrificed climate program for Pa. budget deal

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would have capped the amount of carbon that companies in Pennsylvania are allowed to emit.

By KATE HUANGPU
Spotlight PA

HARRISBURG — Environmental advocates and a handful of Democratic lawmakers are lambasting legislative leaders for agreeing to pull Pennsylvania out of an interstate cap-and-trade program as a part of the state’s long-awaited $50.1 billion budget.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) would have capped the amount of carbon that companies in Pennsylvania are allowed to emit. Lawmakers and advocates who spoke with Spotlight PA said pulling out was a major capitulation to state Senate Republicans that leaves the commonwealth without a clear path forward to combat climate change.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf directed the state to join the initiative in 2019 through an executive order. However, litigation from Republican lawmakers and energy producers prevented the state from participating in the program. A case is currently pending before the state Supreme Court.

Molly Parzen, executive director of environmental advocacy group Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, called leaving RGGI a “devastating, self-inflicted setback in addressing affordability, clean energy, and pollution.”

“Their capitulation means that Pennsylvanians will now be robbed of more than $1 billion annually to lower electricity prices through investments in clean energy,” Parzen said in a statement, referencing the potential revenue that would have been funneled to the state.

Republicans have long criticized the program, saying that it would stymie the state’s powerful energy industry and raise consumer bills at a time of increasing costs.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has been vocally skeptical of the program since he announced his run for governor in 2021. He introduced his own state-based alternative to RGGI as legislation that would require GOP support. However, state Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) previously told Spotlight PA that he would not move on any energy policy as long as the state was still in RGGI.

Language pulling Pennsylvania out of RGGI was included in the budget-enabling fiscal code bill. It passed the state House 18914 and the state Senate 43-6.

State Rep. Greg Vitali (D., Delaware), a longtime environmental advocate and chair of the Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee, voted no.

“Democrats and the governor have ceded to this, along with other environmental asks, as a way of coming to a budget agreement and getting other things they deem important,” Vitali told Spotlight PA.

Vitali called RGGI the “only serious thing” that the legislature could have done to address climate change, calling Shapiro’s policy plan “dead on arrival” in the state Senate.

“This is our one opportunity, even though this was an uncertain opportunity. And unfortunately, we are caving in,” Vitali said.

The budget does include an additional $25 million for a popular grant program that provides schools with money to install solar panels and authorizes the spending of federal funding for solar panel construction.

Still, Vitali called those provisions “minuscule” compared to RGGI’s impact.

State Sen. Carolyn Comitta (D., Chester), the minority chair of the chamber’s Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, voted for the bill, despite her concerns regarding “taking RGGI off the table.”

Instead, she called on the legislature to pass Shapiro’s energy plan, which would create a state-level cap-and-trade program and increase renewable energy usage requirements for utilities.

“I fought for RGGI for years. I support RGGI. I still think RGGI would be a good idea for Pennsylvania,” Comitta said on the floor of the state Senate on Wednesday. “But I’m also realistic, and I’m willing to vote yes to end this impasse.”

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