A bipartisan majority of a Pennsylvania House of Representatives panel Monday passed several measures to increase fossil-fuel development in and exportation from the Keystone State.
One resolution, sponsored by State Representative Stan Saylor (R-Red Lion) would call upon Governors Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and Phil Murphy (D-NJ) to terminate their states’ bans on the building of new conduits that could carry natural gas extracted in Pennsylvania. Other legislation offered by State Senator Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) would ensure that legislators must approve Pennsylvania’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state pact to which Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has committed the state by executive order. Implementation of RGGI entails effectively imposing a tax on carbon emissions.
These and all five other measures passed the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee by votes of 16 to 9. All committee Republicans voted in favor while most Democrats voted in opposition, the one exception being Rep. Pam Snyder (D-Carmichaels) whose western Pennsylvania district contains the Bailey Mine Complex, the largest underground coal mine in the world.
Backers of these bills and resolutions cited both international conflict and domestic economics as reasons to augment the development of fossil fuels. Average motor-fuel costs in Pennsylvania have skyrocketed much more than a dollar above their level one year ago. According to automotive-services company AAA, one gallon of regular gasoline now costs Pennsylvanians an average of $4.321 and prices get even higher in the state’s northeast.
Moreover, supporters of expanded fossil-fuel development cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an impetus to produce more domestic energy so that aggressors abroad can’t use their energy abundance to hold undue global sway.
When it comes to RGGI, those backing oil, coal and natural gas production not only believe that the initiative would unnecessarily hamper economically beneficial industry but that the governor is forcing it on his state without recognizing legislators’ authority to approve or reject environmental policy. Of the 11 states that have signed onto RGGI, Pennsylvania is the only one to have done so without legislative participation.
“To be very clear, Senate Bill 119 simply gives this General Assembly the ability to have a voice in the process and a say on whether or not our commonwealth will enter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative,” Pittman said to the committee. “As a co-equal branch of government, I think it’s only logical that we as a General Assembly would have a voice and a role in this process.”
Other items that passed the committee included a resolution by Chairman Daryl Metcalfe (R-Cranberry Township) urging President Joe Biden to cease cancelling fuel pipeline projects; bills by State Rep. Jonathan Fritz (R-Honesdale) to allow natural gas development in the Delaware River Basin; a bill by State Rep. Martina White (R-Philadelphia) to form a task force to examine ways to better position Pennsylvania as an exporter of liquefied natural gas; and a bill by Rep. Clint Owlett (R-Wellsboro) to permit new leases for subsurface drilling on state lands.
Minority Chair Greg Vitali (D-Havertown) spoke vehemently against each of the measures, opining that lawmakers should resist taking steps away from a path to reliance on renewable energy sources like solar and wind. He pointed to young people at the committee meeting and suggested that their future would be compromised by global warming should fossil fuels remain dominant energy sources.
“Climate change is an existential threat to this planet,” he said. “And the most important thing Pennsylvania can do to address climate change this year is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. … This is a serious problem and if we don’t address it, these kids right here, they’re going to be left in a climate dystopia. This is a serious problem and we need to do something about it.”
Metcalfe countered that progressive environmentalists have been making such dystopian predictions for decades but the disaster about which they have warned has not come close to transpiring.
“The sky is not falling,” he said. “It’s not the threat to the world population as you try and claim it is.”
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “State Rep Stan Saylor” by Stan Saylor.
