{"id":288824,"date":"2025-11-13T09:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/288824\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T09:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:04:16","slug":"pas-50b-budget-deal-ends-rggi-climate-program-spotlight-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/288824\/","title":{"rendered":"PA’s $50B budget deal ends RGGI climate program \u2022 Spotlight PA"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG \u2014 Environmental advocates and a handful of Democratic lawmakers are lambasting legislative leaders for agreeing to pull Pennsylvania out of an interstate cap-and-trade program as a part of the state\u2019s long-awaited $50.1 billion budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) would have capped the amount of carbon that companies in Pennsylvania are allowed to emit. Lawmakers and advocates who spoke with Spotlight PA said pulling out was a major capitulation to state Senate Republicans that leaves the commonwealth without a clear path forward to combat climate change. <\/p>\n

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf directed the state to join the initiative in 2019 through an executive order. However, litigation from Republican lawmakers and energy producers prevented the state from participating in the program. A case is currently pending<\/a> before the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Molly Parzen, executive director of environmental advocacy group Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, called leaving RGGI a \u201cdevastating, self-inflicted setback in addressing affordability, clean energy, and pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir capitulation means that Pennsylvanians will now be robbed of more than $1 billion annually to lower electricity prices through investments in clean energy,\u201d Parzen said in a statement, referencing<\/a> the potential revenue that would have been funneled to the state.<\/p>\n

Republicans have long criticized the program, saying that it would stymie the state\u2019s powerful energy industry and raise consumer bills at a time of increasing costs.<\/p>\n

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has been vocally skeptical<\/a> of the program since he announced his run for governor in 2021. He introduced<\/a> his own state-based alternative to RGGI as legislation that would require GOP support.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Shapiro said that state Senate Republican leadership has \u201cused RGGI as an excuse to stall substantive conversations about energy and energy production.\u201d Now that the excuse is gone, Shapiro said he expects to see action on policy that \u201ccreates more jobs,\u201d brings \u201cmore clean energy onto our grid,\u201d and reduces \u201cthe cost of energy for all Pennsylvanians.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) previously told Spotlight PA that he would not move on any energy policy as long as the state was still in RGGI.<\/p>\n

Language pulling Pennsylvania out of RGGI was included in the budget-enabling fiscal code bill.<\/a> It passed the state House 189-14 and the state Senate 43-6.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Greg Vitali (D., Delaware), a longtime environmental advocate and chair of the Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee, voted no.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats and the governor have ceded to this, along with other environmental asks, as a way of coming to a budget agreement and getting other things they deem important,\u201d Vitali told Spotlight PA.<\/p>\n

Vitali called RGGI the \u201conly serious thing\u201d that the legislature could have done to address climate change, calling Shapiro\u2019s policy plan \u201cdead on arrival\u201d in the state Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our one opportunity, even though this was an uncertain opportunity. And unfortunately, we are caving in,\u201d Vitali said.<\/p>\n

The budget does include an additional $25 million for a popular grant program that provides schools with money to install solar panels and authorizes the spending of federal funding for solar panel construction.<\/p>\n

Still, Vitali called those provisions \u201cminuscule\u201d compared to RGGI\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Carolyn Comitta (D., Chester), the minority chair of the chamber\u2019s Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, voted for the bill, despite her concerns regarding \u201ctaking RGGI off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, she called on the legislature to pass Shapiro\u2019s energy plan, which would create a state-level cap-and-trade program and increase renewable energy usage requirements for utilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fought for RGGI for years. I support RGGI. I still think RGGI would be a good idea for Pennsylvania,\u201d Comitta said on the floor of the state Senate on Wednesday. \u201cBut I’m also realistic, and I’m willing to vote yes to end this impasse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG \u2014 Environmental advocates and a handful of Democratic lawmakers are lambasting legislative leaders for agreeing to pull…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-288824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288824","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=288824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}