Gov. Tom Wolf plans to veto an energy-related House bill, cutting short celebrations of legislators, but especially Sen. Joe Pittman, R-41st. “It's disappointing,” Pittman said. “It's not surprising.”

Pittman spearheaded the Senate's effort to pass House Bill 2025, introduced by Rep. Jim Struzzi, R-62nd, which would prevent the governor from entering the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative without the legislature's involvement.

The bill also creates the Pennsylvania Carbon Dioxide Cap and Trade Authorization Act, which would establish a process for the legislature to vet and decide on the move.

The bill passed a House vote Tuesday 130-71, and passed in the Senate 33-17 Wednesday. “The bill never said you can't join RGGI,” Pittman said. “The intent of the law was to authorize the process for going down this path.”

On Oct. 3, Wolf directed the Department of Environmental Protection to join RGGI, a collaboration of nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states with a focus on reducing emissions. The initiative would set a cap on total carbon dioxide emissions from electric power generators in the involved states.

Lyndsay Kensinger, a press secretary for the governor's office, said the governor plans to veto the bill because he already has the authority to direct the DEP to develop a draft rule-making for Pennsylvania's joining of the initiative under the authority granted by the Air Pollution Control Act.

“The regulatory review process is thorough and requires extensive public participation, which would be derailed with the passage of House Bill 2025,” Kensinger said.

Pittman said the bill offers further control measures that protect his constituents and their livelihoods, many of whom are tied to the energy industry.

He said his district employees thousands of people who help produce about 6,000 megawatts of electricity, which could power about 3.9 million homes.

“If we're going to price those power companies out of the area, and risk that many jobs, the legislature needs to be part of the process,” Pittman said.

According to Kensinger, the DEP has talked to representatives from the coal, natural gas and nuclear industries as well as environmental equity groups, environmental justice stakeholders and affected communities.

“The governor believes that addressing climate change is one of the most important challenges we face and participating in RGGI would have significant environmental and health benefits in Pennsylvania,” Kensinger said.

Pittman said he does not refute what the RGGI could do because those conversations have not taken place, at least not with the legislature, and that's part of the problem. “That is something that needs to be vetted by the legislature, not to be done by just one person, regardless of who the governor is,” he said.