State Sen. Joe Pittman, R-41st, plans to introduce a bill addressing Gov. Tom Wolf’s decision for Pennsylvania to join the multistate Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

On Oct. 3, Wolf directed the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to join RGGI, a collaboration of nine Northeast and mid-Atlantic states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The states set a cap on total carbon dioxide emissions from electric power generators. To comply, power plants must purchase a credit or “allowance” for each ton of CO2 they emit through an online auction process. Pittman said the most recent RGGI auction in September resulted in a carbon tax of $5.20 per ton.

“While the debate about climate change needs to be taken seriously, this effort has much more to do with the authority vested in the General Assembly and accommodating the governor’s desired request for a collaborative process in deciding whether we move forward in joining RGGI,” Pittman said in a news release Wednesday from his office.

The bill declares the Legislature does not believe the governor has the ability to unilaterally enter RGGI; requires the DEP to accept public comments, hold public hearings and submit a proposal to join RGGI to the General Assembly; and requires legislative approval before the DEP can formally enter RGGI.

Pittman said RGGI could have consequences beyond the state’s 19 coal-fired electric generating units, which represent nearly one-quarter of the state’s total electric generation capacity. He argues that if the power plants were forced out of business, then the carbon tax on power generation would be paid entirely by natural gas-fired electric generating units.

The burden of that tax, according to Pittman, would make the gas-fired plants less competitive than plants in neighboring states and drive investment in natural gas electric generation elsewhere.