State DEP pushes to join pact to reduce emissions

Pennsylvania would receive $300 million in 2022 from the sale of emissions credits and reduce its emissions of climate-changing carbon dioxide by more than 180 million tons over the next decade if it joins the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Residents would also realize billions of dollars in health care savings due to cleaner air resulting from the state’s participation in the initiative, a consortium of 10 mid-Atlantic and New England states formed to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, DEP officials said Thursday.

“Climate change is the defining issue of the 21st century, and we are already seeing impacts with stronger storms, flooding and higher temperatures,” said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “This alone won’t solve climate change, but it’s one step we can take to protect our homes, jobs and the environment.”

The DEP estimates from 2022 to 2030, participating in RGGI would reduce health care costs for Pennsylvanians by $2.8 billion to $6.3 billion, lead to an increase in Gross State Product of nearly $2 billion, and create more than 27,000 jobs. By 2050, it would produce a cumulative increase in disposable personal income of $3.7 billion, the DEP modeling predicts.

Money from the sale of the emissions credits could be used to support communities impacted by air pollution and for energy efficiency programs, support of clean and renewable energy projects and greenhouse gas abatement. Spending could be targeted to help communities of color and workers in coal mining communities.

The state’s effort to join the initiative has been pushed by Gov. Tom Wolf as a cost-effective way to reduce the commonwealth’s carbon footprint and generate economic growth, but it has received little support from Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature, where opposition to joining RGGI has been vocal and legislation has been introduced to restrict the DEP’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

The RGGI states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have agreed to limit carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants.

The limit or cap would cover the entire region, with individual power plants required to purchase credits equal to their emissions, and able to trade or purchase those allowances in a market-based system that rewards efficient and lower-emitting power plants and reduces overall greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the DEP, a total of 57 industrial facilities

statewide would be affected by the carbon dioxide emissions limits, including the last six remaining coal-fired power plants in the state.

Haley Book, DEP senior adviser for energy and climate and project manager for the RGGI program, said the cooperative, multistate effort targets emissions from coal-fired power plants and would cap fossil fuel power plant and manufacturing facility emissions in Pennsylvania at 78 million tons in 2022, reducing to 50 million tons in 2030.

Ms. Book said a Yale University survey of Pennsylvania residents found 72% support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant and 70% say environmental protection is more important than economic growth.

In 2017, the most recent data available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania

carbon dioxide emissions totaled 263 million tons, with 31% from industry, 29% from the electric power sector and 24% from mobile sources.

The carbon dioxide emissions reductions under RGGI would have the co-benefit of cutting emissions of nitrogen oxide by 112,000 tons and sulfur dioxide by 67,000 tons.

Together the public health and economic impacts would be substantial, Ms. Book said, resulting in 639 fewer premature deaths, reducing lost work days by more than 68,000, and reducing the number of childhood asthma cases by more than 45,000.

“The main outcome is that environmental protection and economic growth are not mutually exclusive and can grow through RGGI, supporting Pennsylvania’s economy and benefiting public health,” Ms. Book said.

She said the state is already feeling the impact of climate change, with temperatures up 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit over historical norms and expected to rise by as much at 5.4 degrees by 2050.

In January 2019, Mr. Wolf signed an executive order to set Pennsylvania’s first statewide climate goals, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 26% by 2025 and 80% by 2050, compared to 2005 levels. A second order by the governor in October 2019 directed the DEP to write regulations for participation in the regional program.

Those draft rules are scheduled for a vote by the state’s Environmental Quality Board at its Sept. 15 meeting.

If approved, the DEP would hold public hearings around the state in the fall, followed by reviews by a variety of state agencies, boards and committees.

The goal of the administration is to formally join the RGGI in January 2022.