PA Senate Republicans Move Bill To Require General Assembly Approval To Regulate Carbon Emissions

A bill that would prohibit a Governor from joining multistate programs that would implement carbon cap and trade programs without legislative approval was voted out of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on April 27.

Senate Bill 119 (Pittman-R-Indiana) is aimed at the regulatory process continuing to be pursued by Governor Wolf to have Pennsylvania join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which would impose a cap and trade program on fuels used for electric power generation.

The bill would also include the requirement of legislative approval before entering  other multistate compacts such as the Transportation Climate Initiative which the Governor decided not to join (for now) last December.

The bill cleared the Committee by a partisan 7-4 vote and will now go to the full Senate for consideration. Similar legislation has also been introduced in the House this session in the form of House Bill 637 (Struzi (R-Indiana).

A similar bill passed the General Assembly last session, but was ultimately vetoed by the Governor.  Click here to read a previous report in the PPA Express.

The fight between the Republicans and the Governor over the issue executive versus legislative power in these matters further ramped up with the Senate Republicans announcing that they would not confirm a pending PUC nominee of the Governor due to his actions on RGGI.

The Governor responded by reportedly firing 12 hold over appointees from the Corbett Administration.

TAP HERE for all articles in May 3 EXPRESS Update