Carbon taxes face growing state battleWhile President Joe Biden continues to pursue anti-energy initiatives at the national level, those same policies appear to be unraveling at the state level.
The proposed restrictions on oil and gas use that sit at the heart of Biden’s "Build Back Better" agenda would only further accelerate rising consumer costs. The House version of the bill, for instance, is overloaded with new fees and taxes that would greatly increase the cost of domestic energy production. What will this mean for people who need to heat their homes, buy groceries, fill their tanks, and pay utility bills?
The answer comes in the form of a multistate climate change agreement that reflects in microcosm what Team Biden is attempting to do nationally. Recent developments in key states suggest the agreement may be in the early stages of collapse for the same reasons Build Back Better has stalled federally.
In Virginia, Republican Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin has made it clear that he intends to pull his state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative , a " cap and trade " regulatory scheme widely known as RGGI. Youngkin aptly described the initiative as a "carbon tax" that will raise energy costs during his remarks before the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce in December. Dominion Energy, the state’s largest electric utility, is poised to nearly double the carbon surcharge it passes along to consumers for participating in RGGI. Government figures show this charge will boost the average residential customer’s monthly bill by $4.37 beginning in September. The surcharge is estimated to be $2.39 a month.
There are 11 RGGI states in the New England and mid-Atlantic regions that require power plants to purchase carbon allowances at quarterly auctions whenever those plants exceed the cap on emissions established under the climate change compact. Emissions prices for credits hit a record high of $13 per ton in the most recent auction, which will translate into more carbon taxes for consumers. This would help to explain why new member states have been holding out.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, had planned on having his state join RGGI this week. But he is running into opposition from lawmakers in both parties. Wolf had issued an executive order in 2019 directing his Department of Environmental Protection to develop regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions in anticipation of joining the initiative. But in December, the Pennsylvania House passed a concurrent resolution disapproving of Wolf’s carbon dioxide budget trading program, which means the regulations cannot be published in the state registry. The state Senate passed the resolution in October.
Assuming Wolf exercises his veto, the resolution will return to the Pennsylvania Senate, which will then have 10 legislative days or 30 calendar days to override the veto. If that effort is successful, the resolution will then go back to the House, which also needs to muster a two-thirds vote. That seems a tall order, but Wolf is drawing opposition from some of his own Democrats, putting a veto override within reach. Rep. Pam Snyder, who represents Greene, Fayette, and Washington counties, is among the Democrats who voted in favor of the resolution. ............
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