The Pennsylvania House voted Wednesday to disapprove the cornerstone of Gov. Tom Wolf’s efforts to cut back on releases of climate-warming pollution from Pennsylvania’s power plants.
The disapproval resolution, which the Senate passed in October, now heads to Mr. Wolf, who is expected to veto it.
The House vote, 130-70, was not enough to override a veto.
The Republican-led Legislature aims to defeat, or at least delay, the Democratic Wolf administration’s plan to require coal and gas-fired power plants to begin paying to emit carbon dioxide.
The regulation would make Pennsylvania the 12th state and the first major fossil fuel energy producer in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which sets a declining cap on carbon emissions from power plants through 2030.
The revenue from the program — which is expected to top $100 million per year, depending on auction prices — would be spent on initiatives to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, unless the Legislature authorizes a different use of the funds.
The vote comes amid a dispute between the Wolf administration and legislative leaders about whether the General Assembly’s time to review the carbon-cutting rule is already up.
The Wolf administration contends the state’s concurrent resolution process requires the House and Senate to act concurrently to disapprove regulations. The Legislature contends the chambers can act consecutively — in effect doubling the General Assembly’s time for review.
The Wolf administration says the Legislature’s votes to disapprove the rule were due by the end of October and the House did not act in time, which means the rule was approved by default. But the legislative bureau responsible for publishing state rules has refused to print the regulation, siding with the Republicans’ interpretation of the law that gives the Legislature more time.
In a letter Friday to the Legislative Reference Bureau, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Patrick McDonnell indicated that the dispute will result in “time-consuming litigation” if the bureau does not reconsider and publish the rule now.
In the meantime, Mr. Wolf can veto the resolution and neither chamber has demonstrated it has the votes to override him.
Still, the House and Senate have 30 calendar days or 10 legislative session days to try. Under the Legislature’s current schedule, that would mean override votes would be due in February or March.
The Wolf administration had intended to join the regional carbon initiative by Jan. 1, but it also established quarterly carbon budgets for next year in case it could not meet that deadline.
In a blog post, Mark Szybist, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that by delaying publication of the rule, Republican leaders are trying to maximize the chances that judges will bar the rule from taking effect once the inevitable lawsuits against it are filed.
That would leave the carbon-cutting rule’s fate to the courts and, possibly, the next governor. Mr. Wolf’s term expires in January 2023.
Republican candidates for governor have lined up against the rule while Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro told the Associated Press that he is not convinced that joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative meets his standards for addressing climate change, protecting energy jobs and ensuring access to “reliable, affordable and clean power.”
The Department of Environmental Protection is still working to develop a plan for spending the revenue, which will be open for public comment, spokesman Jamar Thrasher said. The agency had committed to finalizing an investment plan for the proceeds prior to implementing the final rule, but it has not yet released a draft.
While the regulation is under review in the Legislature, the Wolf administration has focused on promoting two bills sponsored by Democrats that would broaden the scope of how the money can be used beyond controlling air and climate pollution, he said.
The bills would send more than a third of the money to a fund to support workers and communities affected by the closure of existing power plants and an eighth of the money to low-income and minority environmental justice communities that have been disproportionately burdened with poor air quality and climate impacts.
Of the six remaining conventional coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania, all but one have already reported plans to shut down or transition to other fuel sources within seven years, regardless of the carbon rule.
Laura Legere: llegere@post-gazette.com.
First Published: December 15, 2021, 11:49 p.m.