POWER PA JOBS ALLIANCE: PA COURT ENJOINS THE $800 MILLION RGGI ELECTRICITY TAX

July 8, 2022

HARRISBURG – Today, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania enjoined Governor Tom Wolf from implementing and enforcing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax regulation. This is a significant win for Pennsylvania families and employers, and paves the way for the courts to reject this unconstitutional and illegal regulatory tax that was targeting both Pennsylvania’s own energy resources and consumers pocketbooks.


Today’s court order, which concluded the legal challenge brought by labor leaders and industry is “likely to succeed on the merits,” is a significant win for working families as well as families already suffering from the effects of energy poverty and historic inflation. The decision protects thousands of blue-collar energy workers who operate and maintain Pennsylvania’s fossil fuel electric generation plants, as well as, electricity consumers and families who would be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more in higher electricity costs.

 
Without the Commonwealth Court’s Preliminary Injunction order, starting today, plant owners and electric customers would have begun paying for the $800 million carbon tax on the electricity generated from coal and natural gas fired electricity generation in Pennsylvania. These plants provide two-thirds of Pennsylvania’s total generation capacity. As a result of the RGGI Tax, electricity rates for families would increase well in excess of 30 percent, which is in addition to the near doubling of electricity rates in certain parts of the Commonwealth.


About Power PA Jobs: The Power PA Jobs Alliance is a broad-based coalition of business and labor leaders committed to protecting Pennsylvania’s most reliable and affordable sources of electricity from the devastating impacts of Governor Wolf’s $800 million RGGI Electricity Tax. Power PA Jobs also opposes RGGI because it has effectively banned the construction of new and efficient natural gas plants in Pennsylvania and, instead, incentivized construction of these plants in Ohio and West Virginia, which will never be subject to RGGI.