The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on Tuesday approved a concurrent resolution disapproving a regulation by the state Environmental Quality Board to have Pennsylvania join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, according to Sen. Joe Pittman, R-41st, committee vice chairman.

Prior to the vote, Pittman said he chided the Democratic members of the committee for turning a deaf ear to the calls from organized labor against RGGI and for deriding efforts to derail Gov. Tom Wolf's unilateral decision that Pennsylvania join the compact consisting of 11 non-energy producing states. Pennsylvania would be the only state to join without legislative approval, he said.

“I for one am more than willing and happy to stand as a fighter for working families. That's what this is about. This is about working families,” Pittman said. “Some may ridicule this as a waste of time and a waste of resources, but as far as I am concerned fighting for family sustaining wages is why we are here.”

The goal of RGGI is to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants by setting a regional cap on emissions from plants in the participating states.

The regulation requires that plants with the capacity to produce 25 megawatts or more of electricity must acquire CO2 allowances equal to the amount of CO2 emitted. Each state has its own allowance budget, but the only firm cap is the regional one. Plants in each state can purchase and trade allowances.

The revenue from the quarterly auctions is returned to the states for reinvestment in efficiency and other greenhouse gas reduction programs that further reduce power sector emissions.

When Wolf announced his decision to join RGGI in 2019, the carbon tax rate was $5.20 per ton of CO2. Since then, the RGGI tax rate has increased 79% to $9.30. Models produced for the state Department of Environmental Protection emphasized that the RGGI tax rate would not surpass $7 per CO2 ton until at least 2025, Pittman said.

Pittman and other Republicans have stressed that the carbon tax would violate the state constitution, which grants exclusive power to the legislative branch to levy taxes, and would result in the closure of Pennsylvania's coal-fired power plants and the loss of hundreds of family sustaining jobs.

“For me this is an easy issue because it is about jobs. It's about family sustaining wages. And yes, it's somewhat parochial in terms of the district I represent,” Pittman said. “But all of us in the legislature, regardless of party affiliation and policy, should be very concerned about what we are preparing to do in allowing our executive branch to unilaterally engage in such policy initiatives.”

The resolution goes to the full Senate for consideration. The Senate has either 10 legislative days or 30 calendar days — whichever is longer — to consider the disapproval resolution. If approved, the resolution goes to the House chamber, which also has 10 legislative or 30 calendar days to pass the resolution and present it to the governor.

If the governor vetoes the disapproval resolution, it will return to the Senate, which may consider overriding the veto. Two-thirds of the Senate must support the resolution to override. The measure then goes to the House, where the same two-thirds vote is required.

The matter of joining RGGI will end up in court even if a veto is not overridden, Pittman said.

“This will go to court because this clearly is a tax and it is clearly a policy decision beyond the scope of their regulatory authority,” Pittman said. “The governor will be gone in 16 months and we may well be finding ourselves sitting here in a situation where we will be withdrawing from RGGI before it is ever implemented.”