PIOGA: Wolf’s Continued Effort to Force Pennsylvania into Job-Killing RGGI Flouts State Law, Balance of Power

WEXFORD, Pa. (July 13) – Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) President & Executive Director Daniel J. Weaver today issued the following statement after a 15-4 vote by members of the Environmental Quality Board to push the Commonwealth further into becoming a participating state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI):

“Gov. Tom Wolf continues his use of strong-arm tactics to impose an expensive, unwise and job-killing policy on the Commonwealth by placing a tax on carbon production and joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, as evidenced by today’s vote by the Wolf administration-controlled Environmental Quality Board. At its most basic level, this proposal ignores state laws that require legislative approval of any new tax and do not authorize, under the state’s Air Pollution Control Act, the regulation of carbon dioxide.

“Multiple independent state advisory boards, legislative committees and regulatory commissions have expressed their opposition to this blatant example of executive overreach, which would make Pennsylvania the only state in the RGGI program that did not seek legislative approval to join the group.

“Economically, RGGI will result in the loss of thousands of jobs at fossil fuel electric generating facilities around the state by taxing those facilities and favoring more-expensive renewable sources. Environmentally, RGGI will have little impact on our air quality, as the electricity Pennsylvania demands would be generated in states to the west that will never join RGGI and whose emissions will drift to the east into our state.  Pragmatically, Pennsylvania has already reduced CO2 emissions from fossil fuel generation by almost 40 percent in the last dozen years without the economic burdens of RGGI.

“PIOGA urges the legislature to continue its fight against this ill-advised, economically devastating power grab by the Wolf Administration.”

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