In Pennsylvania, policy makers in the Governor’s Office and General Assembly are actively considering the propriety of joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI is a regional, “market-based” carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction program that is currently being implemented in 10 northeastern states—Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In these states, consistent with RGGI, fossil fuel-fired electric power generators with a capacity of 25 megawatts (MW) or greater are required to obtain allowances to offset their CO2 emissions.  The vast majority of those allowances are distributed through quarterly, regional allowance auctions, which have generated in excess of $3.5 billion in revenues for the participating states since RGGI’s inception.

On Oct. 3, 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf issued an executive order (No. 2019-07) directing the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) to develop a proposed rulemaking package that would suffice to implement RGGI, should the commonwealth decide to formally join the program. PADEP is currently developing those proposed rules and, by Sept. 15, 2020, intends to present them to the Environmental Quality Board (EQB), who will decide whether to publish them for public comment. The governor’s view is that the executive branch has the power to bind the commonwealth to RGGI and adopt rules to implement the program.