{"id":287647,"date":"2025-11-12T19:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T19:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287647\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T19:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T19:34:07","slug":"pa-budget-deal-kills-major-program-to-control-greenhouse-gases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287647\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. budget deal kills major program to control greenhouse gases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania\u2019s lawmakers approved a budget <\/a>that kills the state\u2019s entry into a regional greenhouse gas program designed to reduce carbon emissions. <\/p>\n

It is a move cheered by state Republicans<\/a> and one that the state\u2019s environmental groups feared was coming.<\/p>\n

One environmental leader referred to the deal as \u201cclimate infamy.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s RGGI, and why is there opposition?<\/p>\n

An amendment to the $50.1 billion state budget<\/a> withdraws Pennsylvania from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an effort by 10 Northeastern states to curb greenhouse gases. Former Gov. Tom Wolf enrolled the state in RGGI<\/a> through an executive order that took effect in 2022. <\/p>\n

But Republicans have zealously fought against RGGI, citing it as threat to the state\u2019s natural gas industry. As a result, Pennsylvania has never been able to fully enroll in RGGI, which has been tied up before the state\u2019s Supreme Court after a GOP-led lawsuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under RGGI, power plants buy allowances for emissions they produce, which are then sold at auctions with proceeds going to states. New Jersey, for example, gets up to $80 million annually from the auctions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dubious achievement\u2019<\/p>\n

Environmental groups have known for several weeks that there appeared to be a deal between Shapiro and House leadership to scrap RGGI<\/a> in return for finally getting a budget approved. An impasse grew over spending priorities when the budget deadline lapsed June 30. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Environmental groups rally in fear Harrisburg budget deal will sink major greenhouse gas initiative<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe agreement by Democrats<\/a> in the State House, Senate Republicans, and Gov. Shapiro to pull Pennsylvania out of what is arguably the most successful state level program in the nation for reducing global warming pollution will be remembered as a day of climate infamy in Pennsylvania politics,\u201d said David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, a nonprofit advocacy group. <\/p>\n

Masur called it a \u201cdubious achievement\u201d for Shapiro and that scrapping RGGI amounts to a \u201cprofound or far-reaching rollback of environmental protections.\u201d<\/p>\n

But RGGI has always been a harder sell in Pennsylvania than in the other RGGI states such as neighboring New Jersey and Delaware.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania is the nation\u2019s second-largest U.S. natural gas producer<\/a> after Texas. It is also the third largest coal-producing state after Wyoming and West Virginia.<\/p>\n

So any program that seeks to reduce the use of fossil fuels faces significant headwinds in a state where jobs are tied to its production. <\/p>\n

\u2018Number one issue\u2019<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s purple political makeup also gives Shapiro, who has never outright embraced RGGI, and Democrats, less room to maneuver. The state legislature is currently split, with Democrats<\/a> holding a one-seat majority in the House and Republicans holding a six-seat majority in the Senate. <\/p>\n

Republicans across the Capitol were celebrating Pennsylvania\u2019s impending exit from RGGI. <\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R., Bedford) said in floor remarks Wednesday that RGGI was the \u201cnumber one issue\u201d hindering the state\u2019s economic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a part of RGGI is truly what was keep energy development out of Pennsylvania, as we were losing jobs to West Virginia and Ohio,\u201d Topper added.<\/p>\n

Some Democrats were critical of the RGGI exit. <\/p>\n

In the end, they still voted in support of the overall deal. Sen. Carolyn Comitta (D., Chester) noted in floor remarks Wednesday that Pennsylvania was already responsible for 1% of the greenhouse gas emissions globally, which is higher than some countries. <\/p>\n

She urged that the state replace RGGI with another program to protect the state\u2019s environment. \u201cWe had a way to address the climate crisis by joining and participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know some of my colleagues don\u2019t like RGGI, which is probably an understatement,\u201d Comitta said, \u201cbut there\u2019s no denying that RGGI represented our best, and at this point, only opportunity to implement a plan that addresses carbon emissions in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania\u2019s lawmakers approved a budget that kills the state\u2019s entry into a regional greenhouse gas program designed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,146982,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-287647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-pennsylvania-regional-greenhouse-gas-initiative-budget-deal","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}