The State Senate returns to Harrisburg this week and one of the items on the agenda is a meeting Tuesday of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee to address what Chairman Senator Gene Yaw says are “skyrocketing clearing prices” in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative auctions. When Governor Wolf ordered Pennsylvania to join RGGI, in October of 2019, energy producers were paying less than $3 per short ton to offset greenhouse gas emissions. At the most recent auction last month, the cost for credits had jumped to more than $13 per short ton, which is more than four times what the Department of Environmental Protection predicted it would be and was forty percent above the September price.
DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell has refused to attend the hearing and answer questions about the inflationary auction prices, which could accelerate energy producers’ plans to close power plants. Yaw says “Questions need to be asked and answers need to be provided.” He is urging McDonnell to reconsider and attend the hearing.
The Senate is considering holding a vote to override Governor Tom Wolf’s veto last week of a RGGI disapproval bill.
