Despite veto-proof Senate passage of a bill last week to stop Governor Tom Wolf’s plan to force the state into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board will meet on Tuesday morning to consider the “final form rulemaking” for RGGI. It will be closed to in-person attendance and available online only, at pacast.com/live/dep.
Senator Joe Pittman’s Senate Bill 119 passed on Wednesday with the support of six Democrats and all 28 Republicans, plus the one independent member. The bill is now before the state House.
The Independent Regulatory Review Commission has recommended a delay in a decision about RGGI until January 1st of 2023 and has ordered the Environmental Quality Board to explain how it can legally join RGGI without the approval of the General Assembly. Wolf claims he has the authority and wants the state to join RGGI on January 1st of next year, his final year in office.
