Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw (R-Williamsport) indicated Wednesday he will soon introduce legislation to create a regulatory framework for “carbon capture” in the commonwealth.
Carbon capture is the process of catching carbon-dioxide discharge from fossil-fuel-fired power plants and manufacturing facilities for either reuse or storage so that the emissions don’t make it into the atmosphere and exacerbate global warming.
“At present, regulatory authority of carbon capture and sequestration [CCS] projects is held at the federal level with the Environmental Protection Agency,” Yaw wrote in a memorandum on his bill. “Establishing a Pennsylvania-specific statute is the first step to facilitate further studies of CCS feasibility in Pennsylvania.”
The senator noted his bill, to be named the Pennsylvania Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide Act, would declare the General Assembly’s aim of advancing carbon capture in the Keystone State and assign property rights around prospective storage sites. The measure would also delineate the regulatory authority and permitting process within preexisting federal rules and provide for funding the program’s implementation.
Legislation containing similar provisions has been introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives by State Representative Jim Struzzi (R-Homer City). But while Republicans stand strongly behind the idea of effecting technologies to reduce the carbon emissions that reach the atmosphere, some leftists have resisted the idea, arguing that the expansion of renewable energy sources will be more effective.
Governor Tom Wolf (D) has hinted at potential support for the kind of emission-reduction technologies Yaw and Struzzi are promoting, but his administration has maintained that the most important step toward curbing Pennsylvania’s impact on climate change will be the state’s implementation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The initiative, which the governor entered Pennsylvania into in 2019 via executive order, will require the state to charge carbon-emitting facilities for their discharge.
Earlier this week, representatives of business and labor organizations told a joint hearing of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee and the Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee that RGGI will end up costing the state many well-paying jobs. Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office has also said that economic modeling predicts that, once the effective carbon tax required by RGGI is implemented, electricity producers will pass most of this new cost on to consumers.
Yaw and like-minded legislators have also argued that RGGI would have an undue negative impact on natural gas development, something they believe is counterproductive on account of the fuel emitting less carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels. At this week’s Senate hearing, Kevin Sunday, government affairs director at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, testified that increased reliance on natural gas has allowed Pennsylvania to proportionally decrease carbon discharge 2.5 times more than other RGGI member states since the initiative commenced implementation in 2008.
Pennsylvania’s Senate has voted overwhelmingly for a bill to insist that the state only join RGGI with legislative approval. The state House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee passed that measure on a bipartisan 16-to-9 vote on Monday.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
