UNITED STATES NEWS

Pennsylvania high court to consider plan to make power plants pay for greenhouse gas emissions

May 23, 2023, 9:10 PM

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court will take its first crack at whether a governor can force power plant owners to pay for their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, or whether he first needed approval from a Legislature that refused to go along with the plan.

Hanging in the balance is Pennsylvania’s effort to become the first major fossil fuel-producing state to adopt carbon pricing.

On Wednesday, the state’s highest court will hear arguments on whether a lower court was right to halt Pennsylvania’s participation in a multistate consortium that imposes a price and declining cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

The way the justices react could give hints as to how they might ultimately rule on whether Pennsylvania’s participation — without legislative approval — is constitutional.

It is no small amount of money: Pennsylvania would have raised more than $1 billion had it begun participating in 2022 when former Gov. Tom Wolf intended, according to calculations by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

It became the central plank in Wolf’s plan to fight global warming.

Republican lawmakers, fossil fuel interests, industrial power users and trade unions oppose it, saying it will hurt the state’s energy industry and drive up electric bills.

The case is a political minefield for Gov. Josh Shapiro, Wolf’s successor and a fellow Democrat who was endorsed by some of the labor unions that fought Wolf’s effort to join the consortium.

Shapiro has maintained that he does not support entering the consortium, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, on Wolf’s terms. But he continues to fight for it in court and his top environmental protection appointee told lawmakers in March that joining the consortium is “a vehicle” that could help meet Shapiro’s “strong and very aspirational goals” to help the environment.

Meanwhile, Shapiro has assembled a task force to try to come up with something better — a task force that meets in secret and includes opponents from organized labor and executives from companies invested in fossil fuels, as well as supporters of carbon pricing.

State officials, independent researchers and environmental advocates say the money reaped by the state through the auction of emission credits can be spent on encouraging the growth of renewable energy and energy conservation. That, they say, would stabilize electricity bills, or lower them, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions and helping transition workers in fossil fuels into new industries.

Supporters of carbon pricing include the owners of solar, wind and nuclear power, whose installations would become more cost competitive as oil, gas and coal power pay higher prices to operate.

In 2019, Republican lawmakers refused to pass legislation authorizing Pennsylvania to join the consortium, then went to court with fossil fuel interests and labor unions when Wolf used his regulatory authority to join.

The lower court that halted Pennsylvania’s participation is still deciding the merits of the underlying legal challenge: whether the governor unconstitutionally usurped the Legislature’s authority to approve any form of taxation.

Shapiro has echoed criticism of Wolf’s carbon pricing plan, saying it could hurt the state’s energy industry, drive up electric prices and do little to curtail greenhouse gases.

For his part, Shapiro’s most well-defined clean-energy goal is a pledge to ensure Pennsylvania uses 30% of its electricity from renewable power sources by 2030, up from the current 8% in state law.

___

Follow Marc Levy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/timelywriter

United States News

Associated Press

California’s nonpartisan legislative analyst says state faces record $68 billion budget deficit

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is facing a $68 billion budget deficit, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said Thursday. Most of the deficit comes from lower than expected tax revenues this year, the office said. California delayed its tax filing deadline to November this year because a series of damaging storms. That forced Democratic Gov. […]

29 minutes ago

Associated Press

Meta makes end-to-end encryption a default on Facebook Messenger

NEW YORK (AP) — Meta is rolling out end-to-end encryption for calls and messages across its Facebook and Messenger platforms, the company announced Thursday. Such encryption means that no one other than the sender and the recipient — not even Meta — can decipher people’s messages. Encrypted chats, first introduced as an optional feature in […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

U.S. sanctions money lending network to Houthi rebels in Yemen, tied to Iranian oil sales

WASHINGTON (AP) — Responding to increased attacks on ships in the southern Red Sea by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, the U.S. announced sanctions against 13 people and firms alleged to be providing tens of millions of dollars from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities to the Houthis in Yemen. Treasury says that previously sanctioned Houthi […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

Last sentencings are on docket in 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

BELLAIRE, Mich. (AP) — A judge will hand down the final sentences Thursday in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, capping a remarkable investigation that broke into public view on the eve of the 2020 presidential election but produced mixed results in court. Shawn Fix and Brian Higgins pleaded guilty earlier this year […]

2 hours ago

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks during an event on prescription drug costs, in the East Room of t...

Associated Press

The White House is threatening the patents of high-priced drugs developed with taxpayer dollars

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is putting pharmaceutical companies on notice, warning them that if the price of certain drugs is too high, the government might cancel their patent protection and allow rivals to make their own versions. Under a plan announced Thursday, the government would consider overriding the patent for high-priced drugs that […]

4 hours ago

Follow @ktar923...

Sponsored Content by Collins Comfort

Avoid a potential emergency and get your home’s heating and furnace safety checked

With the weather getting colder throughout the Valley, the best time to make sure your heating is all up to date is now. 

Sponsored Articles

Follow @KTAR923...

The 2023 Diamondbacks are a good example to count on the underdog

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the World Series as a surprise. That they made the playoffs at all, got past the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card round, swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS and won two road games in Philadelphia to close out a full seven-game NLCS went against every expectation. Now, […]

Follow @KTAR923...

West Hunsaker at Morris Hall supports Make-A-Wish Foundation in Arizona

KTAR's Community Spotlight this month focuses on Morris Hall and its commitment to supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Arizona.

...

Midwestern University

Midwestern University: innovating Arizona health care education

Midwestern University’s Glendale Campus near Loop 101 and 59th Avenue is an established leader in health care education and one of Arizona’s largest and most valuable health care resources.

Pennsylvania high court to consider plan to make power plants pay for greenhouse gas emissions