13 Sep 2021 Regulations Could Ruin Pennsylvania’s Energy Industry
Why would Pennsylvania’s leadership shoot itself in the foot?
In a victory for Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, a “climate change” zealot, the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission voted to approve proposed regulations that could impose cap-and-trade fees on energy producers. This an important milestone in state-level climate policy because the state now becomes the only net-exporter of energy so far to do so.
Commenting on the situation prior to the Commission’s vote, National Center Senior Fellow Bonner Cohen, Ph.D. said this puts the Keystone State in a perilous position.
In working with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) – a multistate collective Wolf joined against opposition from state legislators – Wolf seems to be prioritizing his own climate policy goals over sound fiscal and energy policy.
“No matter how generous the federal subsidies or how strict the state renewable-energy mandates, wind and solar along with batteries will never meet the demands of residential and commercial users,” Bonner pointed out in an interview with the Daily Signal.
No good will come from this, he said:
The result will be energy rationing, higher prices and serious environmental and public health problems arising from the disposal of wind turbines, solar panels, and back-up batteries — all laden with toxic chemicals — after the end of their short life cycles.
Bonner asked: “Why would Pennsylvania want to join this world?”
Despite the governor’s strident advocacy for this risky, radical push, the green lobby is still on Wolf’s back. Wolf’s refusal to fully oppose fracking and his support of the state’s plastics industry suggest Wolf’s “long-term environmental legacy” is in question, according to PennEnvironment’s David Masur. Green activists also want more electric vehicles and even more restrictions on emissions. And Joe Minott of the Clean Air Council told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the peril Wolf has put Pennsylvanians in is a “good start, but it’s not enough.”
It remains to be seen if the state legislature can stop Wolf’s regulatory regime yet again.
To read the entire article in which Bonner was quoted, click here. The Daily Signal is the investigatory journalism program of The Heritage Foundation.
