Last week, the Pennsylvania Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Task Force (PRGGITF) came back with their findings. This is a committee formed by Governor Josh Shapiro to determine the merits of remaining in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) alongside eleven other states (Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and New England).
Governor Shapiro initially created this task force to fulfill a campaign pledge made to avoid a politically contentious issue in his successful campaign for Governor. The 17-member task force consisted of both Democrats and Republicans and was tasked with finding a solution that the experts deemed best for Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the task force failed to come up with a conclusive recommendation on whether or not Pennsylvania should stay in the RGGI.
The RGGI is a market-based cap-and-trade initiative, placing limits on the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that power plants within these twelve states can produce. CO2 emissions from power plants are among the largest global contributors of greenhouse gas emissions, leading to increased global temperatures and climate change. While each member state in the RGGI will have its own CO2 budget allowance, the only firm CO2 cap is for the RGGI regional group as a whole. Carbon caps for each state are auctioned off to any member state’s qualifying power plants four times a year. The quarterly auction sets the price for the purchase of CO2 allowances. Power plants must purchase CO2 allowances equal to the amount of CO2 emitted in power generation. An estimated $100 million dollars in quarterly revenue produced by the auctions would be returned to the member states to promote energy efficiency through greenhouse gas reduction programs. Over time, this market-based approach will reduce CO2 emissions from power plants with the goal of slowly weaning the twelve member states in the RGGI off of fossil fuels and into renewable clean energy.
This aligns well with Governor Shapiro’s progressive message, not to mention the desire of the mainstream Pennsylvania Democratic Party to promote a goal of achieving 30% in Pennsylvania electricity production from renewable energy sources by 2030 as a means of fighting climate change. With a large Democratic base of young people, it is important for the Shapiro Administration to provide messaging that they support the fight against climate change, and the cap-and-trade initiative of the RGGI would be a great first step. However, instead of openly embracing the RGGI initiative adopted by former Governor Tom Wolf last year, Governor Shapiro organized the PRGGITF to recommend whether Pennsylvania should remain in the RGGI. Why would Shapiro be so hesitant toward staying in the RGGI initiative if his base supports it and it helps push our state towards clean energy? The answer is complicated as Governor Shapiro and most Pa. politicians have a divided loyalty toward clean energy.
In Pennsylvania, the natural gas industry accounts for over five percent of overall state employment. More than 400,000 Pennsylvanians are employed in the natural gas industry which is mainly concentrated in the northern and western parts of the state, and this area traditionally votes Republican. These small towns and villages of the north and west are largely supported by the natural gas industry as grocery stores, local governments, schools, shops and thousands of other jobs depend on the survival of this core industry. Governor Shapiro has chosen not to alienate the natural gas industry as it is one of the largest blue-collar industries in Pennsylvania. Embracing the natural gas industry is an opportunity for Democrats to market themselves as pro-union and pro-worker. Many candidates in the western part of the state, including Josh Shapiro in his successful campaign for Governor, have openly criticized the RGGI and voiced support for the natural gas industry. For many gas industry workers, it would be nearly impossible to transition into the clean energy field with a comparable level of pay and union benefits. This makes staying in the RGGI a tough sell to rural Pennsylvanians who are already struggling with limited employment opportunities and limited access to the internet due to a lack of broadband.
This has left Governor Shapiro in a tight spot as he attempts to appease two opposing wings of the Democratic party: the urban progressive and the rural union worker. Not only does this reveal very deep and open divides in the Democratic party but it could also present an opening for Republicans to exploit in next year’s presidential election. “Our administration will review the working group’s full set of recommendations as we await the Commonwealth Court’s decision on Pennsylvania’s participation in RGGI,” Shapiro’s office said in a press release.
