By: Senator Tracy Pennycuick
Electricity prices are going up. Projections for residences are as high as 10 to 20 percent and roughly 30 percent for business owners.
Several factors contribute to this rise, including the retirement of some older power plants, the costs associated with maintaining a reliable and diverse energy mix, and demand projections.
Another key factor in rising prices is Pennsylvania’s participation in the Governor’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
RGGI is a multistate cap-and-trade program that would impose a new energy tax on Pennsylvania power producers, which in turn would increase the cost to heat your home and turn on your lights.
It is unclear why Governor Wolf and now Shapiro think Pennsylvania needs to be a part of RGGI. Our Commonwealth is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. While energy production has gone up, carbon emissions have gone down. In fact, the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) found that Pennsylvania reduced emissions by nearly 11 percent between 2018 and 2023 – all without RGGI.
Former Gov. Tom Wolf entered Pennsylvania into RGGI through a unilateral executive order, going around the legislature’s constitutional role to levy taxes. Some two years ago, the Commonwealth Court overruled Wolf’s act, noting that “the power to levy taxes is specifically reserved to the General Assembly.” Unfortunately, Governor Shapiro appealed that decision which is currently pending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Allowing RGGI to set carbon pricing would effectively handover policymaking authority to a regional private body that is not accountable to voters or the state’s constitutional safeguards. RGGI erodes the state’s ability to manage its own energy policy and taxing decisions, placing them in the hands of an unelected unaccountable bureaucracy.
For low-income households and individuals living on a fixed income, the effects of participating in RGGI would be devastating. A carbon tax is one of the most regressive taxes for low- and fixed-income households. According to the PA Public Utility Commission, low-income households and retirees, even after receiving assistance from programs like LIHEAP, would have a 30 percent increase in electricity costs under RGGI. That’s unacceptable.
Pennsylvania trade unions and businesses oppose RGGI too because of the harm it would do to our economic growth and the loss of good family sustaining jobs. The 30-plus unions comprising the Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council, including 19 union crafts, said that joining RGGI could lead to a carbon tax on all fossil fuel-related power generation, higher rates and the loss of “thousands of jobs” across the state.
Instead of picking winners and losers, Pennsylvania families and businesses would benefit from advancing energy policy that supports grid reliability and affordability. All forms of energy, including solar and wind, benefit from regulatory certainty.
Pennsylvania’s energy future is not RGGI but a competitive market with a commonsense regulatory framework where businesses can flourish and families can live in an environmentally clean and affordable community.
Joining RGGI may sound good on the campaign trail, but people know better. It’s time to end this failed energy policy and stop looking for new ways to pick Pennsylvanians’ pockets.
Pennsylvania Senator Tracy Pennycuick represents the 24th District in Berks and Montgomery counties.
CONTACT: Lidia Di Fiore (215) 541-2388