Pennsylvanians Face Higher Electric Bills Thanks To Democrats

Pennsylvanians Face Higher Electric Bills Thanks To Democrats

By Leo Knepper

In February, the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) requested that the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) delay joining the Regional Green House Gas Initiative (RGGI) for a year. On Tuesday, July 13, the EQB ignored that request and approved the RGGI regulation. As we’ve mentioned previously, this is an attempt by Governor Wolf and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to sidestep the General Assembly. Joining RGGI will bring the Commonwealth into a regional cap-and-trade scheme, devastate a swath of the economy, and increase electric bills for every ratepayer in PA.

It is hard to overstate just how much damage joining RGGI will do to PA’s economy. In their statement on the EQB’s vote, the Power PA Jobs Alliance did an excellent job in summarizing some of the problems this will cause:

“RGGI will also preclude the construction of any new natural gas fired electric generation plants within the Commonwealth that could otherwise replace lost generation from the closure of older fossil fuel plants. In recent years, Pennsylvania union workers built more than a dozen major natural gas plants within the Commonwealth at a cost of over $14 billion. Under RGGI, these projects will no longer occur within Pennsylvania and, as we have already seen just from the threat of RGGI, Ohio and West Virginia are benefiting from billions of capital investment in existing coal and natural gas plants, but also new natural gas plants.”

Power PA Jobs also notes that three coal-fired power plants in Indiana and Armstrong Counties are responsible have a $2.87 billion impact on the economy. This impact includes hundreds of direct employees and thousands of associated jobs. Governor Wolf’s misguided attempt to remake the Pennsylvania economy as he sees fit will destroy the livelihoods of these people and their families.

The House and Senate are considering legislation to prevent the Governor from unilaterally entering RGGI. The Senate passed SB 119 with a veto-proof majority in June; it is awaiting action in the House. The legislation is currently assigned to the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

We urge you to email your House and Senate members and encourage them to support the legislation to stop the Governor. You can do that by clicking here and filling in your information.
Pennsylvanians Face Higher Electric Bills Thanks To Democrats
Pennsylvanians Face Higher Electric Bills Thanks To Democrats

2 thoughts on “Pennsylvanians Face Higher Electric Bills Thanks To Democrats”

  1. This is exactly what destroyed Ontario, Canada years ago and we had mostly clean Hydro, with some natural gas and a few nuclear plants, they kept trying to close but the “green” energy is not stable even still and the wind turbines will need replacing soon leaving huge costs for clean up and if they remain so stupid the replacement costs for less than 5% of our total energy output and now ugly wasted lands.
    This huge debt on Ontario’s people and businesses while the kleptocracy lieberal government had costs so high businesses fled or went bankrupt, including many farms now taken over by foreign interests too as this was all brought in and built by Asians, who would not use these “green” contraptions in their own countries. At this same time we had two manufacturers of wind turbines in Ontario, but I guess they were not lieberal or could afford to pay the politicians off, they left for Europe which was probably where they were from, so more lost jobs. Of course no one was ever charged for this total corruption people are so brainwashed or just uncaring victims.

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