The reality of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is that it was worse than a bad fit for Pennsylvania. It was awful.
Last week, after a bruising budget impasse between Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) and the state Senate, which is majority Republican, a deal was struck to pass a budget that killed the commonwealth’s participation in RGGI, an initiative that set a cap on emissions and required power plants to purchase “allowances” to release carbon dioxide.
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The states currently part of RGGI are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia — all decidedly blue states whose energy costs soared after joining the initiative.
Pittsburgh Works Together, a building trade organization headquartered in Western Pennsylvania, points to a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which documented that every state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative had higher electricity prices than Pennsylvania.
The deal gave Republicans lower costs and relief for the state’s powerful energy industry, and it gave Shapiro a chance to champion that industry while neutralizing GOP talking points ahead of his reelection bid.
“For years, the Republicans who have led the Senate have used RGGI as an excuse to stall substantive conversations about energy production. Today, that excuse is gone,” Shapiro said at his press conference last week after the budget was finalized.
“It is time now to look forward, and I’m looking forward to aggressively pushing for policies that create more jobs in the energy sector, bring more clean energy onto our grid, and reduce the cost of energy for all Pennsylvanians,” he added.
RGGI was never a Shapiro thing. He inherited it from Gov. Tom Wolf, a York County Democrat, who in 2019 issued an order seeking to join RGGI. It didn’t go over well. The order was challenged in court and has dragged on for years.
Kim Ward, a Westmoreland County Republican and the state Senate president pro tempore, said in a statement that leaving the program “will give Pennsylvania families more certainty with their electricity rates.”
Climate activists were less than thrilled. Lena Moffitt, the executive director of Evergreen Action, said Shapiro was elected to be a fighter who would not back down, but instead, he caved to Republican obstructionism.
Luke Bernstein, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, said the budget agreement offered significant victories for businesses, beginning with permitting reform and the state’s exit from RGGI, “something that will provide much-needed clarity and encourage energy development and investment.”
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The latest energy employment data for Pennsylvania from the Department of Energy show that there are 273,364 energy workers statewide, representing 3.4% of all U.S. energy jobs. Of these energy jobs, 21,580 were in electric power generation, 48,405 in fuels, 51,437 in transmission, distribution, and storage, 69,990 in energy efficiency, and 81,952 in motor vehicles. The Keystone State’s energy sector represents nearly 5% of total state employment.
By steering Pennsylvania out of RGGI, Shapiro showed the kind of pragmatism and independence voters rarely see in politics today.