Budget deal breaking a months-long impasse in Pennsylvania increases funding for environmental protection and maintains clean streams funding, but at the cost of withdrawing from a regional compact to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gases.
Pennsylvania has ended a months-long impasse over its state budget, agreeing to a slight increase in funding for environmental protection — but at the price of walking away from participation in a regional climate compact.
Among the green funding in the $50.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 is a more than 5.5% increase for the Department of Environmental Protection, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The spending plan also continues an annual allocation of $50 million for the Clean Streams Law, with more than $35 million going to a program that helps farmers install more projects that reduce pollution and improve water quality.
On the flip side, the budget deal ends Pennsylvania’s six-year struggle to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). That consortium of 10 Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by requiring the facility owners to pay fees if they exceed annual limits.
In 2019, then Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, ordered his administration to take steps for Pennsylvania to join RGGI. The move was challenged in court, and it has been bogged down in litigation ever since.
In signing the budget deal, Gov. Josh Shapiro, also a Democrat, said RGGI had long been an “excuse” among Senate Republicans to stall progress on energy. “It’s time to look forward,” Shapiro told the PA Environment Digest, “and I’m going to be aggressive about pushing for policies that create more jobs in the energy sector, bring more clean energy onto the grid, and reduce the cost of energy for Pennsylvanians.”
Environmentalists denounced the retreat from RGGI, arguing that based on other states’ experiences with the carbon-pricing program, Pennsylvania stood to see significant declines in emissions while earning millions annually to pay for clean energy initiatives.
Meanwhile, the Democratic election gains this fall in Virginia promise to revive that state’s stalled participation in RGGI. The General Assembly passed clean energy legislation in 2020 that directed the state to join RGGI, but in 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, took executive action to withdraw. A judge recently found his move illegal, but the case remains under appeal.
Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat with increased Democratic majorities in both legislative chambers, has pledged to rejoin RGGI.