Harrisburg – After Senate Democrats failed to stand up for Pennsylvania workers and ratepayers today, the fight against Gov. Tom Wolf’s $781 million carbon tax will continue in court, Sen. Joe Pittman (R-41) said.
“Food insecurity, housing insecurity, energy insecurity, an inadequate minimum wage – all significant issues for which many in the Senate look for solutions day in and day out,” said Sen. Pittman during floor debate. “There is a universal solution to all of those insecurities and all of those inadequacies: it’s a family-sustaining job. J-O-B-S.”
“It should be the preeminent reason that we walk on the floor of this chamber every single day – to preserve, protect, defend and grow family-sustaining jobs,” Sen. Pittman continued. “As we consider an override of the governor’s veto, a vote ‘yes’ is to preserve, protect and defend blue-collar, family-sustaining, union-wage jobs that come from our energy sector.”
Pittman added that if protecting jobs wasn’t enough of a reason to override the governor’s veto, protecting all Pennsylvania consumers of electricity from paying higher bills, and ensuring energy security so our national security can’t be threatened by nations like Russia, should be.
While Republicans stood united to override the governor’s veto of the resolution that disapproves of Pennsylvania joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), Democrats voted against the state’s economic interests in favor of this discredited climate policy that will spike residential electricity bills 30% and kill 22,000 jobs.
Just last week, impartial analysis from the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) concluded RGGI could nearly quadruple new electricity costs for consumers above the administration’s own year-old projections for the program. The IFO also warned members that “those costs would be pushed through to final customers.”
RGGI will cripple Pennsylvania’s economic standing as a leading energy producer and leave the nation more reliant on fossil fuels from hostile nations than ever before, without ever achieving any of RGGI’s purported air quality improvements, said Sen. Pittman.
Multiple independent reports show that emissions from Pennsylvania’s power sector declined at a comparable rate to the other 10 RGGI states over the last decade, further undermining the flimsy justification the administration uses to force this unconstitutional tax onto 13 million residents.
“I never would have thought I’d hear some of my friends on the other side of the aisle embrace corporate America on an issue such as this while turning their backs on the hard-working, middle-class union families in this commonwealth,” Sen. Pittman observed.
Litigation to stop final implementation of RGGI in Pennsylvania is pending in state court.
Contact: Jeremy Dias jdias@pasen.gov