Pennsylvania court permanently blocks effort to make power plants pay for greenhouse gas emissions
Source: Associated Press
Pennsylvania court permanently blocks effort to make power plants pay for greenhouse gas emissions
BY MARC LEVY
Updated 3:32 PM EDT, November 1, 2023
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania cannot enforce a regulation to make power plant owners pay for their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, a state court ruled Wednesday, dealing another setback to the centerpiece of former Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to fight global warming.
The Commonwealth Court last year temporarily blocked Pennsylvania from becoming the first major fossil fuel-producing state to adopt a carbon-pricing program, and the new ruling makes that decision permanent.
The ruling is a victory for Republican lawmakers and coal-related interests that argued that the carbon-pricing plan amounted to a tax, and therefore would have required legislative approval. Wolf, a Democrat, had sought to get around legislative opposition by unconstitutionally imposing the requirement through a regulation, they said.
The court agreed in a 4-1 decision.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-pennsylvania-power-plants-energy-shapiro-e6315cb32a7a7be57ddcad9ad0567e4b